Iran has reached an agreement with Azerbaijan to purchase 180 megawatts of electricity from the Caucasian country to prevent a potential power shortage in summer.
As per the agreement, power imports will begin on June 1 from Azerbaijan's electricity producer, Azerenergy JSC, for Moghan and Astara regions in northwestern Iran, the Iranian Energy Ministry's news portal reported.
Signatories were Etibar Pirverdiyev, the head of Azerenergy JSC, and Arash Kordi, the managing director of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (aka Tavanir), who met on Thursday in Tehran in a ceremony attended by Iran's Deputy Minister of Energy Homayoun Haeri and his Azerbaijani counterpart Natiq Abbasov.
The meeting followed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's recent visit to Baku, during which the two sides discussed expansion of ties in different fields, including power swap.
Under swap deals, Iran exports electricity to Armenia and Azerbaijan in winter and imports it when domestic demand soars in summer. The country trades electricity with four neighbors on its northwestern and western borders, namely Azerbaijan Republic, Turkey, Armenia and Iraq.
Power demand is forecast to exceed 56,000 MW this summer. Some experts say measures to meet demand so far have not been enough and load shedding in some regions could be unavoidable, warning that despite an installed power generation capacity of around 77,000 MW, actual output is insufficient to meet peak-hour demand.
--- Power Transit Corridor
Abbasov said several other topics on power swap and transit to other countries have been discussed.
According to energy outlets, Baku and Tehran have capacities to exchange 700 MW of electricity. In fact, Iran can act as a transit corridor to European countries.
Pointing to plans on increasing the country’s power grid sustainability, Haeri hoped that the two states would expand ties in different energy fields, stressing that cooperation with Azerbaijan in electricity and other energy sectors should be boosted.
Tehran-Baku cooperation is not limited to bilateral ties and there have been trilateral and multilateral agreements between these two neighboring countries with other partners in the region, including Georgia and Russia.
Pirverdiyev said Iran could help Azerbaijan export its electricity to other countries.
Haeri noted that "talks will be held on linking the electricity networks of Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia".
To do so, a trilateral meeting for connecting the energy systems of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia was agreed to be held on April 26 in Baku.
According to Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Iran Bunyad Huseynov, "Iran's transit route, compared to other routes, is more economic and 40% cheaper in terms of costs and 60% shorter in terms of time."
Iran and Azerbaijan, two energy-rich neighbor countries, have longstanding energy cooperation. The two countries have had joint ventures on the construction of geothermal and wind power plants in Iran's Meshkin Shahr and Khaf cities.
In late 2016, the two neighbors agreed on power grid synchronization. The two countries embarked on transmission of 500 MW of electricity to and from Iran in summer and winter respectively.
