The Siah Bisheh Pumped Storage Power Plant's total electricity output cannot be added to the national power grid due to complications in transmission, Arash Kordi, managing director of the Iran Power Generation Transmission and Distribution Management Company (Tavanir) said, ISNA reported.
The power plant is designed to help improve the stability of power transmission in Tehran during the hot season with an estimated capacity of more than 1,000 megawatt (MW). However, according to Kordi, it will supply only 400 kilovolts (0.4 MW) of electricity to the capital due to limitations in power transmission lines.
The laying of a transmission line from the Siah Bisheh complex in the northern Mazandaran Province to the Vardavard region in west Tehran is now underway and is to be completed by July.
Kordi added that the plant's four production units, each with 260 MW capacity, are now "fully operational."
Iran's installed power capacity is close to 73,000 MW. The country's electricity industry ranks 14th in the world and first in the Middle East in terms of electricity generation.
Cheapest Electricity in the World
Iranians have access to the most inexpensive electricity in the world at a rate of approximately 1.4 cent per kilowatt-hour (kWh), the Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said in a statement Tuesday.
"Cheap prices hamper the development of the power industry, make procurement and maintenance difficult and prevent investments in this key sector," he noted.
According to a report published last year by the Statista research portal on global electricity prices in industrial countries, every kWh of electricity in the United States costs 10 cents, while consumers in Italy, Germany and the UK pay the highest with 21 cents, 19.2 cents and 15.4 cents per kWh respectively.
Meanwhile electricity is relatively cheaper in Sweden, Finland and Canada at 7-8 cents per kWh. It 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.
