Hydropower plants are expected to inject more than 15 million megawatt hours of electricity to the national power grid by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2023), the deputy head of Operations Department at Iran Water and Power Resources Development Company, a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry, said.
“Hydroelectric plants have produced close to 3 million megawatt hours of power since March,” Ahmad Kavousinejad was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
The facilities will generate more than 55,000 megawatt hours of electricity daily between June 15 and August 15, which will be 20% more than last year’s output of 46,000 MWh per day in the same period.
“The nationwide project to overhaul 59 hydroelectric power plants to improve their output was completed in May and all stations are fully operational,” he said.
The plants’ total production capacity is projected to reach 12,187 megawatts, yet the figure barely reached 11,000 MW last year due to technical defects in some stations.”
Timely care and maintenance have already added close to 5,000 MW of hydropower to the national grid.
According to the Energy Ministry, electricity produced from hydroelectric power plants last summer fell to 4.1 million megawatt hours – a decline of 36% compared with last year’s corresponding period.
The hot summer led to higher power consumption and, due to hydropower deficits, resulted in shortage of 15,000 MW of power.
Last year’s frequent load shedding and outages in most urban areas took a heavy toll on households and industries.
Kavousinejad noted that hydroelectric plants play a key role during power outages because they quickly reestablish supply after a blackout and support other plants, mostly thermal.
“There are 17 hydroelectric power plants under construction. When operational, they will add 3,725 MW to the total hydropower output,” he said.
Hydropower is a renewable source of energy and cleaner compared to other sources. It constitutes almost 12,500 MW of Iran’s total installed power generation capacity of 85,000 MW and plays a key role during outages in summer by quickly restoring supply and supporting other plants.
