Combined heat and power plants with a capacity of generating 1,145 megawatts are operational in industrial towns across Iran, the head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization said.
“CHP stations with a power generation capacity of 1,645 MW are under construction and the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has received applications to issue licenses for building new cogeneration plants with a capacity of 1,319 MW,” Ali Rasoulian was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
In line with policies to boost electricity output with the help of the private sector, 91 memoranda of understanding have been signed between Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization and provincial power companies to build small-scale power plants to supply electricity to 87 industrial zones all over the country.
Rasoulian said the MoUs call for constructing cogeneration stations with a capacity of 3,423 MW, of which 523 MW will soon become operational.
Some 92 industrial towns spanning over 6,000 hectares are ready to join hands with the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization to be equipped with photovoltaic solar farms to meet their rising power demand, he added.
Cogeneration or combined heat and power is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
In conventional power plants, some energy is discarded as waste heat, but most of the thermal energy is put to use in cogeneration.
Several CHP plants went on stream in the past few years in Mazandaran, Ardabil and Yazd provinces.
Planned Outages
Referring to the Energy Ministry’s daily timetable of blackouts for industrial units in metropolitan cities that has been in place since June, Rasoulian noted that unlike previous years when abrupt power outages adversely affected industrial units, which took a toll on electrical equipment, industries have not experienced any unplanned blackouts over the last two months.
Mining and manufacturing industries were negatively affected by the power supply crisis last summer, as they were forced to halt operations repeatedly in June and July because the state-run utility company could not produce sufficient electricity.
Industrialists said that in 2021, unplanned outages led to irreparable damage to their expensive machinery.
According to the official, the private sector can play a key role in boosting electricity output by embarking on power plant development projects, in which case they will no longer be at the mercy of the state-run Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company. This way, they will be enabled to use their own power generating plants and not be dependent on the national power grid.
“Industries account for 40% of Iran’s annual power consumption of 280 billion kilowatt hours,” he said.
When heavy industrial customers are equipped with their own power stations, they will not need to stop their business in summer when demand exceeds supply.
If industries complete their power projects, the Energy Ministry guarantees that adequate power will be supplied to factories even during peak demand hours, regardless of household consumption level.
All industrial units that consume more than 2 megawatts of electricity per month are charged 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
As per the new bill passed by Majlis last year, electricity tariffs for energy-intensive industries, namely cement factories, oil refineries, petrochemical plants and steel companies, have increased fivefold since March.
