TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran has launched the first phase of a major power plant in the country’s main hub for producing natural gas, Asaluyeh.
In an order issued via videoconference on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani opened the steam unit of the combined-cycle power plant in Asaluyeh, in southern Iran, on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
The facility feeds 160 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Iran’s national power grid, reported IRNA, adding that the total capacity of the power plant would reach 480 MW once all units come online.
The power plant has been designed and launched by MAPNA, Iran’s largest energy construction company, which also owns the facility.
The IRNA report said the steam unit of the power plant is the first in Iran that enjoys a fully home-made distributed control system (DCS).
MAPNA has been behind many construction and renovation schemes in Iranian electricity factories in previous years, including the launch of steam units in the so-called combined-cycle facilities where the steam is raised through using the exhaust heat from the gas-fired combustion turbines.
The company has used 150 contractors for the construction of the Asaluyeh power plant, a process that started in 2016 and created 800 permanent jobs and led to indirect employment for 1,500 people.
Asaluyeh, a small city in Iran’s Bushehr Province, is key to Iran’s massive natural gas sector where various refineries and petrochemical units run on gas pumped from the South Pars gas field, the world’s largest natural gas reserve, which is shared between Iran and Qatar.
President Rouhani on Thursday also launched another electricity and water project in Bushehr Province during the videoconference event.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
