Work is in progress to develop new phases in combined-cycle power plants as part of the blueprint to meet the country's growing electricity demand.
"Projects that will come on stream by June are the Zahedan, Konarak, Bampur and Iranshahr plants, Chabahar's gas-fired plant in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, Jahrom power plant in Fars Province as well as East Azarbaijan’s Heris combined-cycle station," Hamidreza Azimi, Thermal Power Plants Holding Company's deputy for planning was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry's news portal.
An estimated 8,000 megawatts is needed up until next summer to minimize outages, he said, noting that converting simple-cycle plants—which only use gas turbines— to combined-cycle power stations is a priority of the Energy Ministry.
A combined-cycle power plant, or CCPP, uses both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50% more electricity from the same fuel input than a traditional plant. The waste heat from the gas turbine is routed to a nearby steam turbine that in turn generates more power.
On the Jahrom combined-cycle power station, he said the second phase of the power plant in which steam units will come on stream, is expected to add 480 megawatts to the national network by March. U
Upon completion it will annually help save the plant as much as 700 million cubic meters of natural gas worth $125 million.
"The project’s work-in-progress is about 92%," he said, adding that the steam unit of the power plant consists of three 160MW E-class turbines, six heat recovery steam generators and three air-cooled condensers.
National electricity demand is forecast to exceed 60,000 MW next summer. The country's current installed power capacity is said to be around 77,000 MW but a lot less is produced in the hot seasons due to wastage, water shortage in hydroelectric dams as well as technical problems.
