The second steam unit of Urmia Power Plant in West Azarbaijan Province is ready and will be synchronized with the national power grid next week, the project manager said
“With a capacity of 160 megawatts, the unit was completed at an estimated cost of $150 million and will help boost the station’s efficiency by 17%,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven also quoted Amir Mohammadi as saying.
The first steam unit of the plant became operational last year, he added.
According to the official, the steam unit is equipped with an E-class turbine designed and installed by MAPNA, the engineering and energy giant, and uses air-cooled condensers that do not require a large volume of cooling water.
“Now that the second unit is ready, the generation capacity of the complex will rise 480 MW. The two steam units are expected to reduce natural gas consumption in the facility by 1 billion cubic meters per year,” he said.
“The sustainable supply of electricity to the national grid, lower environmental pollution and higher efficiency of electricity generation are among the main features of the project.”
Built in 2009, Urmia Power Plant already has six gas units with a total production capacity of 954 MW. It delivers power to consumers through a network that includes a 230-KV substation.
Mohammadi said electricity generation of the plant will reach 1,434 MW and its efficiency will increase from 32% to 49%.
There are many gas-fired power plants in Iran with a capacity of more than 20,000 MW and an efficiency of 32%.
The construction of steam units near gas turbines and the conversion of conventional power stations into combined-cycle power will increase efficiency to nearly 45%.
Combined-cycle power plant is more eco-friendly than conventional power stations, as they emit less greenhouse gases. Energy from a thermal plant not used for power production is released into the environment in the form of heat.
A combined-cycle power plant uses both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50% more electricity from the same fuel input than a traditional plant. The waste heat from the gas turbine is rerouted to a steam turbine, which in turn generates more power.
Production Capacity
According to Mohsen Tarztalab, managing director of Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company, it is possible to increase power production capacity in Iran by 7,500 megawatts by converting thermal power plants into combined-cycle units and without raising gas consumption.
“By converting gas units into combined-cycle units, it is possible to reduce greenhouse gases by 43 million tons per year and increase the efficiency of power plants by 4%,” he said, adding that it would also save the use of 12 billion cubic meters of gas as feedstock.
Thermal power stations account for 85% of total generation of around 84 gigawatts in Iran.
Thermal units, which either use steam, gas or combined-cycle turbines, account for 71,000 MW of the total output.
A total of 123 thermal power plants are operational. In thermal power generation, Iran ranks ninth in the world.
