Iran’s electricity production grew 2.4% since the start of the Iranian year on March 21, compared to the same period of last year.
Iranian power plants produced just over 152,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity during the first 25 weeks of the year, Fars News Agency reported. However, electricity imports increased by a fifth during the period. Foreign energy imports jumped a whopping 19.4% and reached 1,993 gigawatt-hours.
Most of the electricity was generated by fossil fuel power plants while hydroelectric plants generated a mere 5% of the total.
Iran’s thermal plants made over 14,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity during the 25-week period, up 3.45% from the corresponding period of previous year.
Hydroelectric plants generated a mere 8,211 gigawatt-hours of electricity. But hydroelectric output rose way more than hydrocarbon generation, rising 12.71% compared to the same period of the last Iranian year. Consumption has steadily risen and it is expected to rise at about 6% per year for the following decade. Accordingly, the Iranian energy sector must focus efforts on meeting this continuing demand.
At present, Iran is the 19th largest producer and 20th largest consumer of electricity in the world. A research by Iran’s Energy Ministry indicated that between 15,000-20,000 megawatts of capacity should be added in the next two decades.
In recent years, Iran has put greater emphasis on the participation of domestic and foreign investors in electricity generation, with projects underway to add 40,000 MW more capacity to the national grid.
