Plan to Phase Out Dilapidated Power Plants

Iran aims to shut 3,000 megawatts from decrepit power plants amid a push toward efficient fossil power stations and a flurry of investments in renewable resources, the head of Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company said.

“Power plants with a combined production capacity of 3,000 MW are dilapidated, which should be phased out. To do so, we have devised several plans,” Mohsen Tarztalab was also quoted as saying by ISNA on Friday.

The official stressed that every dilapidated power plant should be replaced with a modern one, otherwise the renovation plan will not come to fruition.

On the administration’s measures for modernizing power infrastructure, he said such plans are underway in Tehran and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces.

“Works on 160 MW of power capacity in the city of Zahedan and 1,034 MW in the capital Tehran have begun,” Tarztalab added.

According to the official, the replacement of an outdated power plant with a modern one needs about $2 billion in investment which, if provided, will help complete the modernization plans in five years.

This is while Abdolrasoul Pishahang, a senior official at Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company, said last year that all the outdated plants will be out of use “in a maximum of 2-3 years”.

Tarztalab stressed that the plans could help curb power wastage in the electricity network.

Iran’s fossil fuel power stations have an average efficiency of 37%, but the country has turned to using highly-efficient turbines made by German engineering giant Siemens as part of a push to renovate its electrical infrastructure.

Iran meets more than 80% of its electricity demand from thermal power plants that run on fossil fuels while renewables account for a meager 420 megawatts, or less than 1% of its energy mix.

Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, told ILNA this week that the administration has commissioned the construction of €6.3 billion ($7.3 billion) worth of renewable power plants through foreign investment, as Iran takes steps to diversify its energy mix that is dominated by oil and gas.

Nobakht added that the new spending will help significantly raise the share of renewables in a country with ample sunlight exposure and huge capacity for wind power.