The ageing Rey Power Plant in Tehran generated two billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the last Persian calendar year (March 2020-2021), which was 5% more than a year ago, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported.
The 43-year-old thermal power station in south of the province, which has a generation capacity of 810 megawatts now, produced 1.95 billion kWh last year.
The raise was due to repair and maintenance of all 21 gas units undertaken by engineers.
Rey Power Plant opened in 1978 with 40 gas units and generation capacity of 1,200 MW. But due to wear and tear and technical problems in some units only 21 are operating.
The station currently has an efficiency rate of 22% after four decades. The estimated useful life of an electricity plant normally is 20 years.
“With renovation programs underway efficiency will reach 30%,” the plant manager said. “Construction of a 230 kilovolt gas-insulated substation has started at the plant as a first step to boost efficiency,” Hamid Baderestani was quoted as saying.
Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company has announced that it plans to phase out old power plants with low efficiency including the Rey facility. Plans call for building a new power plant next to the old unit and gradually decommission the latter.
Permits have been issued for the construction of a combined-cycle power station with 60% efficiency near Rey. However, as building a new power plant needs minimum three years, the old plant will function with improved efficiency as rehab programs proceed.
