The Rey Power Plant in southern Tehran has increased its electricity generation capacity by 5% during summer, the managing director of the plant said.
“One of the units of the power plant, which was seriously damaged in an accident in the past, became operational again, adding 25 megawatts of electricity to the production, or 5% to the capacity compared to last year,” Hamid Badrestani was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news service Paven.
“Due to the fact that all the units of the power plant are gas-fired and there is enough space for adding a steam unit, conditions for converting the plant into a combined-cycle one are fully available,” he added.
Badrestani noted that the Rey Power Plant has 21 gas units and is considered the largest state-owned power station in the country in terms of the number of turbines.
“However, due to its old age, the plant has an efficiency of about 24%, which is not economically justified. Therefore, it has been decided to renovate the plant into a combined-cycle one. But until the completion of the project, due to the lack of electricity production in the country, especially during summer and winter, the plant continues to operate with current units,” he said.
“If the current gas units are renovated, about 8% will be added to the plant’s efficiency and by converting into a combined-cycle station, its efficiency will reach about 50%.”
The plan to replace the aging Rey Power Plant is underway and the first unit of the new high-efficiency F-Class power station will be launched by the summer of 2024.
The Rey Power Plant was built in the 1970s with 40 gas units and a production capacity of over 1,000 megawatts. However, at present, the facility is operating with 21 gas units and a capacity of 500 MW.
According to the development plan, a high-efficiency combined-cycle plant with F-Class gas turbines and a total generation capacity of 1 GW will replace the old units.
Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company has announced that it plans to phase out old power plants with low efficiency. Plans call for building a new power plant next to the old units and gradually decommission the latter.
Effective steps have been taken to convert conventional plants into combined-cycle units to improve efficiency and reduce pollution and costs.
The Energy Ministry is gradually phasing out inefficient power plants, renovating and expanding electricity infrastructure and acquiring modern technology.
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 to generate electricity.
