Thermal power output in East Azarbaijan Province last year (March 2018-2019) shows 8.1% rise compared to the year before, said the director of planning department at the East Azarbaijan Power Generation Management Company.
With average efficiency of 36%, thermal plants in the northwestern province generated 7.6 million megawatt hours last year, the energy ministry news website Paven reported Shahrouz Shabestari as saying.
Efficiency of a thermal power station is typically 33% to 48%. Considering the heat produced by gas and steam turbines, their efficiency is limited and governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
“The power plants were fed 2.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 49,500 cubic meters of mazut and 289,500 liters of diesel,” he added.
Referring to optimizing gas and steam units of the plants for maximum production during the hot summer when consumption is high, Shabestari said all thermal units including Sahand, Tabriz and Soufian have undergone overhaul.
The EAPGMC plans to increase output at Tabriz Thermal Power Station. The plant has two units each generating 350 MW and plans call for boosting each unit’s production to 368 MW.
Construction of Heris Combined Cycle Power Plant, with 2500 MW capacity, is in the final phase and is expected to come on stream before summer.
The power station, 93km northeast of Tabriz, is among the first power plants that uses F class turbine, which has a high-efficiency rate.
A total of 123 thermal power plants are operational across the country. Regarding thermal power, Iran is ninth in the world. Thermal units that either use steam, gas-powered or combined-cycle turbines, account for 65,000 MW of the total output.
An estimated $3.5 billion was invested in power plants in the last two years. Iran has installed capacity of 81,000 MW and plans call for raising output to more than 85,000 MW by the end of this year.
