About 1,500 megawatts of electricity will be added to the power production capacity of the country by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2024) with different industries completing the construction of power plants, the spokesman of the power industry said.
“The basic plan is for large industries to supply their electricity needs independently and without relying on the national power grid,” Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven.
“The construction of 5,000 MW of power plant has been started by industries and they are expected to carry out more projects with a capacity of 10,000 MW in the next two years,” he added.
The spokesman said two gas units of Qods Power Plant in Semnan Province have gone on stream with a capacity of 183 MW each, while other power plants are being built at a good speed.
This is the first power plant constructed with the direct investment of industries and the construction of the third gas unit, with a capacity of 183 MW, is underway. 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.
Future Projects
The first gas-powered unit of Mobarakeh Steel Company’s combined-cycle power plant will be connected to the national grid in June.
The second gas unit will be launched two months later. Each unit will have an electricity production capacity of 307 MW. A steam unit of the same capacity will also become operational in 2024.
Mobarakeh Steel Company is the largest steel company of Iran as well as the Middle East and North Africa region. It will be the second power station constructed with the investment of industries that will add over 900 MW to the national power grid when it becomes fully operational.
As per a 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.
Being built on a 12-hectare land in proximity to the 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 the national gas grid.
Speaking about other ongoing projects, Rajabi-Mashhadi said the first gas units of Al-Mahdi Aluminum Power Plant and Golgohar Sirjan Power Station, both with a capacity of 183 MW, will be launched by the end of summer and their second gas units will be connected to the grid 45 days after the launch of the first units.
Furthermore, the 315 MW gas unit of Lamard Power Plant will be put into operation in the second half of the current year, he added.
The projects are the result of a deal signed in 2021 between the Energy Ministry and the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade for the construction of thermal and solar power plants with a total capacity of 15 gigawatts by industries to provide reliable and stable electricity to mining and other industries.
