A new small-scale power plant with distributed generation system has joined the national grid in Abarkouh County, Yazd Province on Wednesday, managing director of the provincial electricity distribution company said.
With 4 MW capacity, the facility was built by a private company and cost $1 million, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven quoted Arash Nawab as saying.
The plant is equipped with two gas-powered generators each with the capacity to produce 2 MW.
Distributed generation or on-site generation (OSG) refers to electricity produced in small quantities near the point of use, as alternative or supplement to traditional centralized grid-connected power. It reduces the cost and complexity associated with transmission and distribution, while helping offset peak electricity demand and stabile the local grid.
"The small-scale station will help sustain load during peak hours," he added, noting that the peak hour demand in the central province has surpassed 41 MW.
Almost half the electricity in Yazd (55%) is consumed by farmers while industries account for 20% of the total consumption, Nawab said.
Yazd Province has a population is 1.13 million people, 85% of which live in the urban areas. It is one of Iran's known centers for textiles and famous also for factories making ceramics and construction material.
Yazd has a hot desert climate. It is the driest major city in Iran, with a yearly precipitation of 49 millimeters and only 23 days of rainfall. It also is the hottest city north of the Persian Gulf coast, with summer temperatures normally hovering above 40 °C (104 °F) with no humidity.
Abarkouh is located at the crossroads of Yazd, Isfahan and Fars provinces, known as Iran's tourism triangle. It houses 400 historical sites, of which 123 have been nationally inscribed.
New PV Station in S. Khorasan
In related news, Paven said a 7 MW photovoltaic power plant was linked to the national power grid in Sarbisheh County, South Khorasan Province.
Stretching over 14 hectares, it was built in six months by a private company, Paven reported.
Costing $7 million, it will annually generate 12,000 megawatt hours of electricity and help reduce greenhouse gasses. If the same amount of energy was to be produced by a thermal power plant, 4 million cubic meters of carbon dioxide would burn annually.
The plant will reduce consumption of 9,600 tons of greenhouse gases per annum.
Having a dry climate, South Khorasan has sufficient solar radiation and in recent years many solar farms and rooftop photovoltaic systems have been installed there.
Launch of the new plant brings renewable power capacity in the province to 18 MW, of which 2,120 kilowatts are generated via rooftop panels.
