A 42 megawatt gas power plant in Zahedan, capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, started operations on Thursday in the presence of the Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian.
Costing over $30 million, the plant is an undertaking of the engineering and energy enterprise MAPNA Group in the southeastern city, IRNA reported.
The new power station runs on natural gas and will supply 40,000 subscribers in the provincial capital with electricity.
In his visit to the deprived province, Ardakanian attended the groundbreaking ceremony of a combined-cycle power plant with a capacity of 480MW in Zahedan.
According to the estimates, the Ministry of Energy will invest an estimated $100 million in the power station to be constructed on 50 hectares.
“The gas unit of the state-funded power plant will come on stream by 2021 and a steam unit is expected to start functioning a year later,” the minister said.
A combined-cycle power plant uses both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50% more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple cycle plant. The waste heat from the gas turbine is routed to the nearby steam turbine, which generates extra power.
Building this power plant in Sistan and Baluchestan province is a priority of the government as it aims at employing domestic specialists and other human resourcaes.
The government has said with the new plant it intends to increase electricity generation in the region, meet a part of the demand of the national electricity grid, create jobs for the locals and draw on the knowledge and expertise of Iranian engineers and specialists in developing the national electric power industry.
MAPNA is a conglomerate of Iranian companies involved in development and execution of thermal and renewable power, oil & gas, railway transportation and other industrial projects as well as manufacturing key equipment including gas and steam turbines, electrical generators, turbine blades and gas compressors.
*** Chabahar Power Plant
Construction of a steam unit at the Chabahar Power Plant in the port city of Chabahar on the coast of the Gulf of Oman, is among other projects in Sistan and Baluchestan Province. Scheduled for completion by 2022, it will add 160 MW to its current 318 MW capacity.
The operation to supply feedstock in the form of compressed natural gas to Chabahar Power Plant, which was halted for financial reasons, has resumed and the gas-fired plant receives compressed natural gas for electricity production.
Using CNG for electricity generation is in line with plans to replace polluting feedstock, such as mazut and diesel, with cleaner and more eco-friendly fuels at power stations and refineries.
Made by compressing natural gas, CNG is primarily composed of methane. Unlike natural gas, which is typically transported via pipelines, CNG is carried via special vessels and trucks.
Close to 80% of thermal power plants in Iran burn natural gas for producing electricity.
Power plants in Sistan and Baluchestan Province have been supplied with gas since March 2017 when an extension of the Iran Gas Trunkline 7 started to pump natural gas from Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to Iranshahr.
The domestic power industry has 79,000 MW of installed capacity but is facing average demand growth of 5% a year, which calls for 5,000 megawatts of additional power generation capacity at the minimum.
As part of development programs, the government is eyeing renewables as an alternative to fossil fuels, which constitute about 90% of Iran’s energy mix. The existing renewable capacity is 650MW.
MAPNA is making turbines for a 50 MW wind power plant in Sistan and Baluchistan.
*** Improving Development Indices
Sistan and Baluchestan is the most underdeveloped, desolate, and poorest of provinces in Iran.
“The province needs serious attention to energy infrastructure for development. Completing the energy infrastructure will help other development indices in the province to improve,” Sistan and Baluchistan Governor Ahmad-Ali Mouhebati said.
“The province has huge capacity in the field of renewable energy, and we expect the Ministry of Energy to take appropriate measures in the field,” he said, adding that if energy infrastructure is in place in the faraway region private companies will be more willing and able to invest in the province.
Intro: The Ministry of Energy will invest more than $100 million in a 480MW power station in Zahedan
Caption: The new plant runs on natural gas and will supply power to 40,000 subscribers in the provincial capital.
