The first unit of the new Zarand Combined-Cycle Power Plant in Kerman Province with a capacity of 162 megawatts will be connected to the national grid in April, director of the power project at Thermal Power Plants Holding Company said.
“The power station is being constructed on a 52-hectare land, 20 km from Zarand City, near Aliabad Village. It will have two gas units and one steam unit with a total capacity of 484 MW,” Mahmoud Sadeqi was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven.
“The second unit will come on stream in June and the steam unit will become operational later,” he added.
Sadeqi noted that the plant will play a key role in supplying electricity to the provinces of Kerman, Hormozgan and Sistan-Baluchestan and help compensate for the electricity deficit in the southeastern regions.
The construction operation of Zarand Power Plant is being implemented by domestic experts using the government’s financial resources and the plant’s efficiency will be 48%.
All the main components and equipment of this complex, including turbines, generators, transformers and auxiliary equipment, are manufactured by domestic producers and companies.
Currently, the thermal power plant in Zarand is the first to have been operating for half a century in southeast Iran and one of the few that uses mazut to generate electricity. However, due to low efficiency and lack of fuel, it will soon be phased out and replaced with the new combined-cycle power station.
A combined-cycle power plant uses both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50% more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple-cycle plant. Waste heat from the gas turbine is routed to the nearby steam turbine to generate electricity.
Energy efficiency of a conventional thermal power station, considered salable energy produced as a percent of the heating value of the fuel consumed, is typically 30-40%. Considering all the heat produced by gas and steam turbines, their efficiency is limited and governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
The average efficiency of domestic power plants is around 37%. Thermal power stations in Iran account for 80% of total power generation of around 85 gigawatts and therefore improvement of efficiency is crucial.
According to reports, effective steps have been taken to convert conventional plants into combined-cycle units to raise efficiency and reduce pollution and costs.
THPCC oversees dozens of fossil fuel power plants with an installed capacity of over 65,000 MW, which constitute the bulk of Iran's electricity demand.
