Increase in the volume of gas supplies, instead of liquid fuels, to power plants has garnered $10 billion in savings, said managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Shana news agency reported.
Volume of gas supplies to power plants during the first 339 days of the current Iranian calendar year (ends March 20) has increased by 13 billion cubic meters compared with the same period last year, Hamidreza Araqi said, noting that liquid fuels were replaced with gas.
"Supplying such volume of gas to power plants is unprecedented in the history of Iran's gas industry," the official added. Besides generating economic gains, the measure has significantly reduced air pollution. On average, 140 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas was supplied to power plants per day since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, a figure which stood at 100 mcm/d last year.
To help curb air pollution, power plants and industries have been instructed to use gas instead of mazut and diesel. One third of the country's natural gas is consumed at power plants. Iran's power plants need a daily 160 mcm/d of feedstock, of which 40 mcm is mazut and 10-15 mcm diesel.
The share of power plants in air pollution is about 40 percent, while air pollution costs the economy $16 billion annually, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Moreover, as part of the drive to reduce the energy sector's contribution to air pollution, a total of 4,000 megawatt gas-fueled power plants are to be replaced with combined-cycle plants before the yearend.
