TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran ranks 14th in the world in terms of power plant capacity despite the unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington on Tehran, said the energy minister.
Reza Ardakanian made the remarks on power plant capacity in an address to an open session of Iran Parliament on Wednesday, Fars News Agency reported.
Although the population of our country has increased by about two-thirds over the past four decades, Iranian citizens’ access to electricity is greater than the global average, the minister said.
Access to electricity is about 100 percent in Iran’s urban areas, while the global average is estimated at 96 percent, he added.
Since seven years ago, about 16,000 megawatts (MW) have been added to the country’s electricity generation capacity, Ardakanian said, noting, expressing hope that this figure would reach 20,000 MW and even more than that in 2021.
He added the power grids of Iran and Iraq have become synchronized since a month ago via the new Amarah-Karkheh 400-kilovolt transmission line with a length of over 73 kilometers.
The new transmission line supplies electricity to both countries. It will also help pave the way for increasing power exports to Iraq in the near future.
With the synchronization of the two countries’ power grids, the quality of electricity in Iraq will improve.
In 2004 Iran started exporting electricity to Iraq. Iran’s electricity exports to the western neighbor currently stand at 1,361 MW per day.
Earlier, the Iranian Energy Ministry said electricity loss in the domestic power distribution network has been reduced considerably, noting that it is for the first time that such a major achievement has been made.
The ministry added electricity loss across the entire domestic power distribution network had declined by 0.7 percent year-on-year to stand at 9.76 percent on March 19.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
