Electricity exports from the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21) until January 9 totaled 7,922 million kilowatt hours, indicating a 12 percent drop compared to the same period last year, ISNA reported Tuesday.
The report cited informed sources that Iran's electricity exchange with its neighbors last year was affected partly by the seizure of a key power transmission line in Iraq by the Islamic State. According to latest data from Iran Power Network Management Company, electricity import reached 3,107 mKWh in the March-January period, showing a 2 percent increase in comparison with the same period in the previous year.
The energy ministry had earlier announced that the volume of electricity exports would surge in the second half of the year; however, the number has not seen an increase and a negative electricity trade balance has been recorded.
The report added that a recent slump in power generation capacity as well as major repairs at the power plants, which usually takes place in winter, can be blamed mainly for the downtrend in electricity export.
"Given the dire need for rehabilitating the power plants and also for constructing new ones, the destructive interference of IS in Iraq cannot be regarded as a major cause of Iran's shrinking electricity sales," the report added.
The drop in export comes as, according to the latest report by the energy ministry, electricity generation in the first ten months of the current year has increased 5.67 percent compared to the same period last year.
Over 224,795 gigawatt hours of electricity was produced in that period, Tasnim news agency reported.
Thermal power stations’ contribution to this amount was 212,784 GWh while hydroelectric power plants recorded slightly more than 12,000 GWh of electricity generation in the said period. The ministry says that power generation capacity in Iran has grown 7 percent annually during the past 10 years.
Iran currently swaps power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan (including Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.
