A new small-scale power plant with distributed generation system operated by the Khuzestan Regional Electricity Company joined the national electricity grid on Sunday, the head of provincial power company said.
“Located in Dezful County, the 25-megawatt plant was built by the domestic engineering and energy giant, MAPNA Group,” Mahmoud Dashtbozorg was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Costing $40 million, the station has a gas turbine and will help stabilize power supply in Shoush and Dezful counties in summer, he added.
Khuzestan Regional Electric Company is responsible for supplying electricity to the southwestern Khuzestan Province as well as its eastern neighbor Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad.
Distributed generation refers to electricity produced in small quantities near the point of use, as alternative or supplement to traditional centralized grid-connected power. It reduces the cost and complexity associated with transmission and distribution, while offsetting peak electricity demand and stabilizing the local grid.
The official said to help improve power supply in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, and reduce load shedding and frequent outages, three gas-insulated substations have recently been synchronized with the national grid.
"GIS systems cost twice as much as regular substations, but play a key role in reducing power cuts in sandstorm regions,” he said.
The three 132-kilovolt substations cost $35 million and were built in two years.
A GIS uses dielectric gas and sulfur hexaflouride at moderate pressure for insulation. It is mostly used where space is expensive or not available.
Dashtbozorg said the facilities were purchased from ABB, a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2017.
“The power grid in the region will be equipped with nine more GIS systems that are expected to cost $105 million,” he said.
"Repairing and rebuilding infrastructure, namely substations and power transmission equipment, battered by dust storms, is expensive.”
Dust storms have become a near permanent feature of the southern regions over the past several years, knocking out electricity grids in several cities in Khuzestan where the mercury crosses above 50 degrees Celsius in summer.
Dashtbozorg noted that in 2015 the sandstorm was so strong that the entire power network was hit and oil output decreased by 700,000 barrels for some days.
The province accounts for 70% of the country's crude oil production.
According to Houshang Falahatian, a former deputy energy minister, the ministry allocated 1 trillion rials ($200 million) to restore power in Khuzestan in 2017.
Residents also suffer intermittent water supply cuts due to the power failures. According to experts, most of the sources of dust storms, which have worsened in recent years, are in neighboring Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
