The national power distribution and transmission infrastructure is expanding in tandem with rising capacity that has reached 84 gigawatts.
According to the Energy Ministry news portal, distribution and transmission lines have been extended by 16,000 kilometers in the past 12 months.
The length of distribution (130,000 km) and transmission lines (815,000 km) has reached 945,000 km nationwide.
The transmission lines now stretch over 815,000 kilometers, of which 15,000 km were laid on utility poles over the last year.
Transmission lines (power lines), carry electricity from power stations to substations in and around cities and typically spans a distance of 500 kilometers or less.
Referring to data from the state-affiliated Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company's (Tavanir), the website said distribution lines, which carry electricity from substations to homes, industry and other end-users, have been extended by 1,000 kilometers in the period to reach 130,000 km.
Tavanir said the length of the grid is expansion mode and would reach 817,000 km by March 2021.
Power Substations
Installed capacity of substations, including transmission and distribution, has reached 122,000 megavolt ampere (MVA), up 16% compared to 2016 when it was 105,000 MVA.
According to Tavanir, the capacity of transmission substations, including both step-up and step-down stations, increased by 8,000 MVA over the last year, whereas the figure for distribution substations is 7,000 MVA.
A step-up substation receives electric power from a nearby generating facility and uses a large power transformer to increase the voltage for transmission to distant locations.
Step-down substations are located at switching points in an electrical grid, connect different parts of a grid.
Distribution substations are located near end-users and adjust transmission voltage to lower levels for use by end-users.
Growing Demand
Tavanir managers say higher electricity production is crucial not only for growing domestic demand but also to increase exports as part of a strategy to establish a regional power network.
Electricity demand in Iran reached an all-time high of 57,000 megawatts last summer. The number of electricity meters nationwide exceeds 36.7 million with one million new subscribers after March 2019.
Energy Ministry data show that $120 million has been spent to expand the rural power grid since 2013.
Funding went largely for installing towers, building substations for transmission and distribution, expanding high voltage transmission lines and aerial transmission cables.
All rural communities with over 20 households (31,000 households) are now connected to the national network.
Iran is the largest exporter and importer of electricity in the Middle East. It exports power to Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. Azerbaijan and Armenia sell electricity to Iran under swap agreements.
Close to 309 billion kilowatt hours of electricity was produced in 2019, up 6.1% rise compared to a year ago, of which, (based on data from the Statistical Center of Iran) 2.9 billion kilowatt hours were sold to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, up 4.7% compared to 2018.
Iran’s electricity generation has made striking progress since 2004 through the expansion of combined cycle power plants that use natural gas along with other supplementary fuels like mazut.
