Ardebil Power Plant Ready for Launch

A combined heat and power (CHP) plant is ready for launch in Germi County in the northwestern province of Ardebil, an advisor to Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said on Sunday.

“With 120 billion rials (around $3.1 million) in private investment, the CHP station, with an electricity production capacity of 7 megawatts, is planned to go on stream in Angut District in Germi,” Mirhossein Faqani was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Cogeneration or combined heat and power is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is an efficient use of fuel.

In conventional power plants, some energy is discarded as waste heat, but in cogeneration, most of this thermal energy is put to use.

According to Faqani, the steam from the power plant will be used for heating a greenhouse, which is due to be built near the CHP station on a 5-hectare piece of land.Once operational, the plant will help minimize power outages  in Germi and supply electricity to the nearby cities of Meshgin Shahr and Parsabad.

"The plant's launch that was initially set for the last (fiscal) year was delayed  because some equipment for the power station was temporarily impounded by customs," Faqani said without elaboration.

Ebrahim Emami, Germi’s governor, also said that another power plant, with 24 MW power generation capacity, will become operational in the region to feed local factories and industrial units. CHP power stations can utilize steam turbines, gas turbines, internal combustion engines or both steam and gas turbines.

By capturing the excess heat, CHP uses heat that would be wasted in a conventional power plant, potentially reaching an efficiency of up to 80%.

This means that less fuel needs to be consumed to produce the same amount of useful energy.