An 8-megawatt combined heat and power (CHP) plant was inaugurated in Rouyparvar Industrial Town in Zanjan Province, managing director of the provincial power company said.
“The cogeneration plant comprises four gas generators with a capacity of 2 MW, two transformers with capacity of 2 mega volt-amperes and two transformers with a capacity of 2.5 mega volt-amperes,” Asghar Hosseini was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
The small-scale power plant cost $10 million and was built with the help of the private sector. It will assist in curbing power outages in the area and maintaining sustainable power supply to the northern power grid.
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. Cogeneration is an efficient use of fuel.
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 Ardabil and Yazd provinces.
Northwestern Zanjan Province has a population of over 1.1 million and is a major tourist attraction. It is well known for its beautiful handcrafted knives and footwear.
Zanjan has a highland climate characterized by extremely cold winters and warm summers. Average maximum temperature is around 27 degrees centigrade and average minimum temperature hovers around -19 degrees.
The province has brick, cement and carpet factories, as well as chromium, lead and copper mines. However, agriculture is the principal source of income, with crops like rice, corn, oilseeds, fruits and potatoes. Poultry, cattle and sheep are also raised.
According to the official, the first 183-megawatt gas unit of Aryan Power Plant in Zanjan Province was linked with the national power grid in 2022.
“Costing $300 million, close to 2.1 million cubic meters of gas will be supplied to the power plant per day,” he added.
The facility, operating with an efficiency rate of 50%, is equipped with MAP2B gas turbines manufactured by MAPNA Group, Iran's top engineering and energy firm.
With a total capacity of 546 megawatts, the thermal power plant has two 183 MW gas units and one 180 MW steam unit.
Operations to complete the second gas unit have concluded and the steam unit is expected to go on stream in fall.
