The steam unit of Chabahar Power Plant in Sistan-Baluchestan Province was linked with the national electricity grid on Saturday, the head of Saba Power and Energy Holding, a subsidiary of Mostazafan Foundation of Islamic Revolution, said.
“The newly launched 160-megawatt steam unit cost $140 million and has increased total capacity of the station in southeast Iran to 575 MW,” Mohsen Amiri was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
The power plant is located 15 km from Chabahar on the road to Iranshahr and because the station is not linked to the national gas grid, it has to burn liquefied fuel as feedstock.
The steam unit is expected to reduce annual diesel consumption in the plant by 250 million liters, he added.
“Given the Persian Gulf freight-on-board prices of diesel at 100 cents per liter, the National Iranian Oil Company can generate around $250 million by exporting the fuel,” he said.
MAPNA Group, Iran's top engineering and energy conglomerate, was in charge of the development project.
Amiri noted that the top priority of the power industry is to convert a gas or heater unit into a combined-cycle one.
“If this is done, there will be huge resources from the country’s fuel economy, which is a huge income," he said, adding that if gas power plants are transformed into combined-cycle units, over 800 million cubic meters of natural gas or diesel fuel could be saved annually.
The plant consists of six gas units, two 157.5-MW units and four 25-MW units (415 MW in total).
“Raising the station’s efficiency to 50%, the steam unit has transformed the simple cycle power station into a combined-cycle one,” he said.
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. The waste heat from the gas turbine is sent to a nearby steam turbine, which also generates electricity.
Increasing output of the power plant will help supply stable power to households in the southernmost tip in Iran and part of the power can be exported to neighboring Pakistan. Iran exports 500 million kilowatt hours of electricity to Pakistan per annum.
With total installed capacity of 86,000 MW, 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 supply electricity under swap agreements.
Electricity Consumption
According to Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi, the head of Iran Grid Management Company, an Energy Ministry subsidiary, an estimated 261 billion kilowatt-hours of power were consumed between March 2021 and January 2022, up 8% or 18 billion kWh compared with the same period of a year ago.
“Close to 290 billion kilowatt-hours of power were produced during the 300-day period, up 5% or 14 billion kWh compared with the same period of a year ago,” he said.
“Of the total output, 90% or 260 billion kWh were produced by thermal [steam, gas and combined-cycle] power stations.”
The state-run Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company’s output is projected to reach 310 billion kWh by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2022).
According to the official, close to 7 billion kWh were exported to neighboring states, namely Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, during the period.
Under swap deals, Iran also exports electricity to neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan in winter and imports when domestic demand soars in summer.
The agreements are in line with policies to increase power grid sustainability via joint ventures and synchronize the network with neighbors.
Close to 308 billion kWh of electricity were produced in 2019, up 6.1% compared to the previous year.
Based on data from the Statistical Center of Iran, 3 billion kilowatt-hours were exported to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2019, up 5% compared to 2018.
