Recent rainfall increased the volume of water in dams and 80% of the dams are now full, while barely 40% were full last year, a deputy manager at Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company said.
With higher water levels in hydroelectric dams, “hydropower plants are expected to generate 5,000 megawatts more electricity, almost double compared to last year,” ISNA quoted Mahmoud Reza Haqifam as saying.
Hydroelectric plants have an installed capacity of 12,000 MW, but they produced less for many years because water levels in dams had plunged noticeably. “Now hydroelectric power plants can produce at least 10,000 MW,” he added.
Iran recorded 283.8 millimeters of rainfall since the beginning of current water year (started in September), up 167.1 millimeters compared to the average precipitation in the past 11 years.
Last water year (September 2017-18) was one of the driest in half a century as 45% rainfall deficit was recorded.
Years of drought and the unprecedented decline in precipitation last year (which was the driest in half a century) resulted in steep declines in water stored in hydroelectric dams.
According to the Energy Ministry, electricity produced from 53 hydroelectric power plants last summer fell to 3.65 million megawatt hours -- a decline of 36% compared to the corresponding period a year ago.
The unusually hot summer led to much higher power consumption and together with hydropower deficits resulted in shortages and load shedding in some urban areas.
Hydroelectric plants play a key role during power outages because they quickly reestablish supply after a blackout and support other plants (mostly thermal), Haqifam said.
Hydropower is a renewable energy and its production is cleaner compared to other sources and constitutes 12,000 MW of Iran’s total installed power generation capacity of 81,000MW.
Regarding hydroelectric power capacity, Iran is ranked 19th in the world and 6th in Asia. China is first in Asia and the world with 341,000 MW of hydropower.
