An unnamed Belgian company has agreed to construct a 600-megawatt power plant in East Azarbaijan Province, the deputy head of East Azarbaijan Investment Services Center announced.
“The combined-cycle power plant is due to be built next to Soufian power plant, in northwest of Tabriz, with F-class turbines,” Reza Hosseini was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The plant is expected to go on stream in three to four years.
Soufian is one of the four power plants in the province, which has a 100-MW production capacity and is located 40 km from Soufian.
East Azarbaijan’s other power plants include Heris combined-cycle plant, the thermal power plant of Tabriz and Sahand power plant, with a production capacity of 1,000 MW, 800 MW and 650 MW respectively.
According to Hosseini, the whole fund of the project, which amounts to $700 million, will be provided by the Belgian company.
Underscoring that the main mission of the East Azarbaijan Investment Services Center is to attract domestic and foreign capital with the goal of developing the province’s economy and industry, the official said the center is currently at the stage of obtaining the licenses needed for the launch of the project.
Hosseini expressed optimism that the executive bodies, which are in charge of issuing investment permits, would accelerate the process, as the power plant will create jobs and increase East Azarbaijan’s power production and distribution capacity.
------Cutting-Edge Technology
Iran is now a producer of E-class turbines, but it has recently signed agreements with the German engineering company Siemens to import and receive the knowhow of manufacturing F-class turbines, which can increase productivity in combined-cycle power plants by over 50%.
Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian had earlier said the efficiency of power plants should rise to 58%.
As part of efforts to achieve the goal, no thermal plants have been built over the past decade and old plants with 20% or less production capacity will be gradually decommissioned.
According to AFP, one of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient and resource-saving technologies, Siemens, signed a far-reaching agreement with Iranian group MAPNA in March to help modernize Iran's energy infrastructure.
As part of the agreement, MAPNA would acquire knowhow to manufacture Siemens F-class gas turbines in Iran and the parties would cooperate to deliver more than 20 gas turbines and associated generators over the next decade.
As a first project under the license agreement, both companies signed a contract for the Bandar Abbas power plant for which Siemens will deliver two F-class gas turbines and generators.
Iran's six-year development plan (2016-21) entails an annual 5,000-megawatt rise in power production capacity, which currently stands at 74,000 MW, over the next five years.
