The second gas unit of Shahid Bakeri Power Plant in Semnan Province, with a capacity of 183 megawatts, was synchronized with the national power grid on Saturday, a deputy managing director of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said.
“This is the first power plant constructed with the direct investment of industries and its development is on track,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven also quoted Seyyed Zaman Hosseini as saying.
The first gas unit became operational in 2022 and the construction of the third gas unit, with a capacity of 183 MW, is underway, he added.
Hosseini noted that a steam unit will be built so that the plant becomes a combined-cycle one.
Usually, one-third of the capacity of combined-cycle power stations is dedicated to steam units, which will be built next to the gas units and no longer require fuel as feedstock.
In 2021, the engineering and energy giant MAPNA Group signed a deal with Mines and Metals Development Investment Company to develop the combined-cycle power plant in Semnan.
The deal stipulates the design, engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of advanced gas units equipped with MAPNA’s own E-Class MGT-70(3) gas turbines.
MAPNA is a conglomerate of Iranian companies involved in the development and execution of thermal and renewable power plants, oil and gas facilities, railroads and other industrial projects as well as the manufacture of equipment.
Mobarakeh Steel Company
The first gas-powered unit of Mobarakeh Steel Company’s combined-cycle power plant will be connected to the national grid in June, the official said.
Mobarakeh Steel Company is the largest steel company of Iran and the wider Middle East and North Africa region.
“This is the second power station constructed with the investment of industries that will add close to 900 megawatts to the national power grid when it becomes fully operational,” Hosseini said.
As per the deal worth $430 million signed between Iran's biggest steelmaker in Isfahan Province and the engineering MAPNA Group in 2021, the latter was tasked with building the facility in three phases. The first gas unit of the plant with a capacity of 300 MW will go on stream in the summer.
According to the official, the facility will comprise two gas units and a steam unit with a generation capacity of 300 MW, and it is expected to be fully synchronized with the power grid in 2024.
Being built on a 12-hectare land in proximity to Kharrazi substation in the steel mill, the new plant will be equipped with MAPNA’s F-Class gas turbines with a high efficiency rate of 59%.
The plant will help the steel factory become totally independent of Tavanir that is struggling to meet industrial units’ growing electricity demand.
Hosseini noted that this will be the second power plant financed by industries, which will be connected to the power grid.
