The national power grid capacity should increase by 5,000 megawatts every year, deputy energy minister said, Mehr news agency reported Saturday.
Houshang Falahatian said, “Annual electricity consumption has increased by 7.5 percent over the past 30 years. To meet rising demand, power plants with 5,000 MW capacity should be built every year.”
The new plants should be built based on renewable energy resources, as power generation capacity is to increase by 47,000 MW by 2021. Generation of one MW electricity in renewable power plants reduces fossil fuels consumption by 900,000 liters and curbs 2,600 tons of pollutants per year, he noted.
Iran’s power generation capacity is 72,000 MW. Around 220 MW is generated from hydroelectric plants and 220 MW via wind and solar units. The ministry has plans to convert several gas-fired plants with 17,000 MW capacity to combined cycle power plants. Close to 8,000 MW capacity of gas-fired plants was turned into combined cycle plants over the past year with $4.5 billion investment. Such plants normally use both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50 percent more electricity from the same fuel than traditional power plants. The efficiency of power plants across the country is estimated to be around 37 percent, but it is scheduled to increase to 57 percent within three years, and ultimately reach the global standard of 85 percent. Improving the efficiency of power plants will help reduce fuel consumption, save costs for electricity generation and help protect the environment.
Renewables
The energy ministry also has plans to increase power generation via renewables to 5,000 MW within the next 6-7 years. Falahatian said global electricity generation capacity via renewables was 1,560 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2013 with an estimated $230 billion investment. Capacity of photovoltaic systems was estimated to be 139 GW in the same period. According to reports, around 300 solar power projects are to be built across the country.
