Private Power Producers Under Stress

Unprecedented volatility in the currency market over the last 15 months is adding financial pressure on private electricity producers and most are on the verge of bankruptcy, head of the board of directors of the Power Generation Companies Syndicate said Tuesday.
"Private power producers who built plants with loans from the National Development Fund of Iran (the sovereign wealth fund), are unable to repay their debts,” Mohammad Ali Vahdati was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Following the government’s appeals in 2014 to private firms to play a bigger role in the power production sector, NDFI gave between $200 million to $350 million to private companies to build thermal power stations, he said. At that time the US dollar was worth 40,000.
“Now the rate has tripled, but the electricity that is generated is still bought with tariffs used in 2014!”