National plans call for reducing the wastage of electricity from around 13 percent to less than 10 percent within the next six months, Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said.
Over the past year energy wastage was curbed by more than 3 percent, reaching 12.8 percent, and plans call for reducing it to below 10 percent in the current year (started March 21), ISNA quoted him as saying.
The minister said close to 4.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was saved in the past year, and gas as feedstock to generate this volume of power would alone cost nearly $3 billion - considering the price of gas at 20 cents per cubic meter. This amount of electricity is equal to the output of a 1000-MW power plant in one year, according to the minister.
Wastage caused by low quality transformers was also curbed by nearly one-third by using newer, more efficient transformers.
In addition, plans also call for increasing power generation capacity by at least 10,000 MW by October, Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian said, adding that enhancing the efficiency of power plants and reducing wastage as the two major goals of the ministry in the current year. He said power generation capacity will increase by 800 MW by the summer.
Several power plants, including Behbahan, and Yazd's second combined cycle power plants as well as thermal units of Kahnooj and Mahshahr plants are expected to come on stream by next March.
Expansion of small-scale power plants with distributed generation (DG) system is another measure to help increase power generation.
DG is an approach that employs small-scale technology to produce electricity close to the end-users. DG technology often consists of renewable-energy generators, and offer more benefits compared to traditional power plants, such as less-expensive supply and higher power reliability as well as fewer environmental hazards.
Expanding Renewables
Recalling the establishment of the first wind plant last year with 20 MW capacity in Qazvin Province, Falahatian stressed that the ministry aims to significantly increase power generation via renewables and expects the private sector to increase its share of investment.
According to reports, the government hopes to produce 5,000 MW from renewable resources within two years and plans to target rural communities who have been largely cut off from government services. Globally, wind power will take more than a third of the growth in clean power; hydropower accounts for about 30 percent, and solar 18 percent, according to a report by the International Energy Organization (IEA).
In addition, managing director of Iran Power Generation and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said electricity supply saw a 6 percent year-on-year increase by the end of the previous Iranian year (ended March 20), reaching 206.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). Homayoun Haeri underlined the implementation of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems as one of the important measures to curb electricity wastage.
AMI are systems that measure, collect, and analyze energy usage, and communicate with metering devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, heat meters, and water meters.
Power Export
Iran wants to renew power export contracts with Iraq and Turkey, deputy energy minister for planning and economic affairs said, insisting that exports so far were according to plans.
Alireza Daemi said Iran exported more than $5 billion worth of electricity generation equipment in the previous Iranian year. Iran’s electricity industry ranks 14th in the world and first in the Middle East in terms of electricity generation with an installed power generation capacity of 72,000 MW.
The country is the largest exporter and importer of electricity in the Middle East and exports electric power to Armenia, Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Azerbaijan and Armenia supply electricity to Iran under a swap agreement.
