The conversion of Besat single-cycle power station in Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to a combined-cycle facility was completed on Tuesday, the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, said.
“The first steam unit of the plant was connected to the national power grid and the power station’s efficiency reached 50%, up 25% compared to the time when it only ran on natural gas,” Mohammad Meshkinfam was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Built over 3 hectares, the facility is equipped with three gas units, each of which has the capacity to generate 160 megawatts of power.
“The steam unit has added 175 megawatts of power to the national grid,” he added.
According to the official, two more steam units will be synchronized with the national electricity network by September and increase the plant’s output capacity to 500 MW.
The new unit is expected to prevent the annual consumption of 250 million cubic meters of natural gas as feedstock and reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses.
Located 25 km off South Pars Special Economic Zone in Bidkhoun County, in southern Bushehr Province, the project was undertaken by Farab Company that has built several power plants and implements oil, gas and petrochemical projects, in addition to building water, wastewater treatment and desalination plants.
“Asalouyeh Power Plant will supply electricity to South Pars Gas Field refineries in phases 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 and 21," he said, noting that refining complexes in Pars 2 region, including phases 12, 13, 14, 19, 22, 23 and 24, will also rely on the new power station in emergency cases.
Comprising 24 phases, South Pars is the world's largest gas field shared by Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf. Iran is now drawing around 1 billion cubic meters per day of natural gas from the joint field with the tiny Arab state's output reportedly extracting 700 mcm/d.
Desalination Unit
To accelerate the conversion of Besat power station to a combined-cycle facility, the plant’s first desalination unit was launched in March, Akbar Dadsetani, the project operator, said.
“The desalination unit has the capacity to process 3,000 cubic meters of saline water per day and will meet the facility’s water requirements in one of the most drought-stricken regions of Iran.”
Dadsetani noted that as an undertaking of Pars Oil and Gas Company, the desalination unit uses multiple distillation methods.
“Two more desalination units are under construction and upon their completion, the power plant will be supplied with 9,000 cubic meters of water per day,” he added.
A 7-km-long 28-inch pipeline transfers 8,000 cubic meters of saline water from Asalouyeh to Bidkhoun per day and after processing, the water is stored in tanks.
Dadsetani said the facility’s efficiency is expected to increase from 30% to 60%.
The power plant helps stabilize electricity supply to refineries in the South Pars Gas Field phases, in addition to Siraf Refinery in Kangan.
Located in southwestern Iran, the arid Bushehr Province is one of the most water-stressed regions. Conditions have become so bad that urban authorities send water tankers to rural areas to ensure that locals have access to the precious resource.
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 that also generates electricity.
Phase 14 Refinery
In related news, Mohammad Mehdi Tavassolipour, director of the SP Phase 14 development project, said phase 14 refinery went on stream last week.
“About 7,000 people were involved in implementing the plan,” he said, noting that the development of the world's largest gas field in Iran, which holds 8% of the world’s natural gas reserves and about 18 billion barrels of gas condensate, is concluded after more than two decades.
Since no more refineries will be built in this section, Phase 14 refinery is the last onshore processing facility in the huge field.
The offshore section of the phase is complete and all the platforms are functioning. It has four platforms, each with a production capacity of 14 million cubic meters of gas per day.
The official said Phase 14, which is an important part of the 9,700-square-kilometer joint field, supplies a part of the gas required by the country by producing 56.6 million cubic meters of natural gas, 75,000 barrels of gas condensate and 400 tons of sulfur.
Tavassolipour noted that it also produces 1 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas and 1 million tons of ethane annually to be used as feedstock in petrochemical plants.
