Power production by small-scale power plants with distributed generation system increased by 1,000 megawatts in five years, a spokesman for the state-run Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said.
"DG power plants nationwide have a capacity of 1,700 MW, up 142% compared to 2015," Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi was quoted as saying by Bargh News.
Urging private investors to help expand power production, he said the Energy Ministry buys electricity under a guaranteed five-year purchase scheme.
“To encourage investors, in summer when consumption peaks, each kilowatt hour of electricity produced via DG power plants is purchased eight times above the tariff for power produced in thermal stations.”
One kilowatt-hour of power is bought at less than one cent from thermal power plant owners.
Referring to a newly-built DG power station in Taft County in Yazd Province, he said the facility will help stabilize power supply in the desert region.
“With 10 MW capacity the station will annually generate at least 77,000 megawatt hours.” Costing $8 million, the plant was built with the help of a private company (Tadbir Niroo Co.). Small-scale power stations account for 167 MW of the province’s total output.
According to the official, power from distributed generation has a wide range of application like supplying electricity to remote rural areas, providing back-up to customers in the event of grid failure and supporting power during peak demand to help reduce network load.
DG systems also fulfil key requirements in an optimized electricity system namely security, improved efficiency, high system reliability, affordable energy cost and low environmental impacts.
Few companies are able or willing to invest in large-scale power projects due to the huge investments, Mashhadi concurred, and said the smaller units do not need large amounts of funding and have market demand. Proximity to end-users and less transmission loss or energy waste are other merits of DG plants.
