Water Shortage to Scuttle Energy Efficiency Plans

Although the conversion of single-cycle power plants (gas-powered) into combined cycles can help significantly raise efficiency, the severity of water shortage in Iran will scuttle such plans, a member of Iran Water Industry Federation, a privately-owned organization, said.
“A combined-cycle facility can generate 5 kilowatt hours of electricity by burning each cubic meters of natural gas, while the same amount of feedstock is burnt to produce a maximum 3 kWh of power in a conventional station,” Ebrahim Raisi was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
Retrofitting gas-powered plants to combined cycles can double the efficacy, but the problem is that combined-cycle facilities require a massive amount of water to keep functioning and most thermal power plants are located in plains from which water extraction is banned, he added.