Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said Tuesday construction work is underway for building 31 power plants with total capacity of 19,000 megawatts in 27 provinces.
Speaking on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for Shahroud Power Station in Semnan Province, Ardakanian said, "Of the projected output, 12,000 MW will be added to the national grid in the next two years and cost $5 billion," ILNA reported.
According the minister, the projects, mostly funded by private companies, would be carried out at a total investment of $8 billion.
Referring to the installed power capacity of 80 gigawatts, the minister said the population has almost tripled over the past four decades, but electricity generation has jumped “by 11 times” in the same period. Iran’s population is 80 million.
During the time of the 1979 revolution it was close to 35 million. Iran has 31 provinces.
"Supplying electricity to rural areas is one of the industry’s main tasks," he added, noting that 30% of the population lives in rural areas and the ministry aims to supply power “to all villages including those with 10 households.”
Energy Ministry data shows less than 2% of rural areas are not connected to the national electricity network.
Asked about power wastage, he said removing old equipment, lines, utility posts and cables plus installing smart electric meters and detecting electricity theft are among measures taken to reduce electricity loss.
"Reducing power wastage by 1% can help save the treasury close to $400 million per annum," he said, adding that his ministry is striving to curb wastage in the national grid to 9% over the next four years from the current 10.9%.
To reach the target, plans call for increasing efficiency of power plants by using advanced turbines and rehabilitating old power stations.
The amount of energy wasted annually in power plants is equivalent to the energy produced by burning more than 300 million barrels of crude oil.
