Speaking at the ECO’s 4th ministerial meeting on Thursday, Ardakanian stated that the Iranian Energy Ministry has several programs for the development of energy exchange with the countries of the region on the agenda so that the country’s geopolitical capacity can be maximally used in global energy markets.

He further suggested that ECO should establish a regional energy corridor to promote cooperation, exchange of knowledge and experience, and use the capacities and potentials of the countries in the region.

Creating such a corridor can lead to the expansion of energy exchanges for a sustainable energy supply, and will also promote the development of various power plants, especially renewable ones, to supply the energy needs of the region, Ardakanian said.

The official noted that the ECO region enjoys rich human and natural resources, energy reserves, capable private sectors, and privileged advantages of regional connectivity.

He said that sustainable energy supply and exchanging electricity can guarantee the security of countries and provide them with sustainable economic income.

“This can be made possible by connecting the electricity grids of neighboring countries, and this “cross-border connection of power grids” can not only pave the way for the transmission of electricity to neighboring countries, but also improve the reliability and resilience of the region’s power grids,” he stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ardakanian underlined the significant potentials of the Iranian renewable market for foreign investors, and said: “Having great renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal, Iran is offering long-term contracts for guaranteed purchase of electricity at incentive rates, so the country’s renewable energy market, with its high potentials, is a very attractive market for foreign investors.”

The official put the country’s installed renewable capacity at 877 megawatts (MW), saying that all of the country’s renewable power plants have been constructed and established using the private sector investment.

“Over 160 companies are currently active in the field of renewable energies in the country,” Ardakanian said.

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Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of some energy projects in the 10th week of the ministry’s A-B-Iran scheme, Ardakanian said: “During the current government incumbency over 20,000 megawatts have been added to the country’s power generation capacity.”

The official noted that since the Iranian calendar year 1396 (started in March 2017), the construction of 31 power plants with a total capacity of 15,000 MW has been started across the country, of which so far 3,150 MW has been put into operation.

Also, 20,000 solar PV systems will be provided to the nomadic households across the country in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20), and since the electricity supply to most of the country’s rural areas has been completed, the electricity network of 10,000 villages will be improved by the end of the year, Ardakanian said.

According to the official, under the framework of the A-B-Iran program in the current Iranian calendar year, so far 49 projects with a total investment of 134.6 trillion rials (about $3.2 billion) have been inaugurated across the country.

The nominal capacity of electricity generation at Iranian power plants has exceeded 86,000 megawatts with the inauguration of several new power plants over the past two years.

Currently, combined cycle power plants account for the biggest share in the country’s total power generation capacity followed by gas power plants.

President Hassan Rouhani, on Thursday, had ordered the commencement of a project for the construction of a 1,400-MW power plant in Hormozgan province.

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Put into operation in the 10th week of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), the said projects were inaugurated in Hormozgan, Ilam, and Kermanshah provinces.

As reported, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanin and officials from the mentioned provinces also attended the inauguration ceremony.

The beginning of the construction operations of a steam power plant with a capacity of 1400 megawatts (MW) in Minab, the second gas unit of Hengam combined cycle power plant in Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province; a dam in Ilam, and over 6,750 hectares of irrigation and drainage networks in Ilam and Kermanshah provinces were among the mentioned projects.

As reported, over 150 trillion rials (about $3.5 billion) has been invested for the implementation of the abovementioned irrigation and drainage networks, while 4.05 trillion rials ($96.4 million) has been invested for the dam project; Sirik power plant is going to be constructed with €1.406 billion (about $1.7 billion) of investment while €355 million (about $432.8 million) plus seven trillion rials (about $166.6 million) has also been spent for the completion of the gas unit of Hengam power plant.

Under the framework of the A-B-Iran program, the Energy Ministry has inaugurated many projects to supply drinking water to the country’s rural areas.

The first phase of the A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19, 2020), during which 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion) were put into operation across the country.

In the second phase of the program that was carried out in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) 250 water and energy projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) were inaugurated in several provinces.

The third phase of the program was officially started on April 6 and like the previous phases, this year, too, the Energy Ministry is planning to inaugurate numerous water and electricity projects in various provinces every week.

Last week, Ardakanian inaugurated water projects worth over $185m in three provinces during the ninth week of the A-B-Iran program.

The inaugurated projects included water supply to several rural areas, some wastewater and water treatment plants, some surface water collection facilities, as well as a tunnel for water transfer.

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“The necessary license has been issued to provide $125 million of Iran’s resources in Iraq for purchasing 16 million doses of the COVAX vaccine and transfer this amount to a European bank,” Ardakanian said.

According to the Energy Ministry’s portal Paven, the official noted that the paperwork is expected to be done by the end of the week and the vaccines will soon be provided to the Iranian Health Ministry.

Iraq owes Iran over $6 billion for electricity and gas imports from the Islamic Republic, of which $3 billion is claimed to be blocked and inaccessible in the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI).

Back in March, the Deputy Head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce said that the Arab country has started repaying its energy debts to Iran and part of the dues has been settled.

“This achievement is the result of diplomacy and pursuit of the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the energy minister and the head of the Judiciary,” Hamid Hosseini told IRNA.

Ardakanian visited Iraq in late December 2020 to meet with senior officials from the country and discuss the country’s energy debts to Iran.

Upon returning to Tehran, Ardakanian said that Iraq was going to open a euro bank account to pave the way for settling all the country’s gas and electricity dues to Iran.

“Based on an agreement which is going to be implemented in the coming days, Iraq is going to open a euro savings bank account in which the country’s debts to National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) and the Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir) will be saved,” Ardakanian said at the time.

“Iraq’s recent and past debts to our country will be transferred and saved in this account after being exchanged to euro,” the minister said.

This way, transferring the money or using it for purchasing basic goods and medicine will be less problematic considering the U.S. sanctions, he emphasized.

Ardakanian had announced the formation of a committee for working on the issue and said: “As the Iranian head of the two countries’ Joint Economic Committee, I will monitor the process on a daily basis until we achieve desirable results.”

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Speaking in a ceremony for inaugurating new projects in the seventh week of the ministry’s A-B-Iran scheme on Tuesday, Ardakanian said: “Approving 32 trillion rials of resources for implementing emergency water supply programs in dry provinces is going to ensure sustained supply of water for people living in such regions.”

According to Ardakanian, the decline in rainfalls during the current water year (started in September 2020) has also caused a 3,200-megawatt decrease in the country’s electricity production.

The minister called on people and authorities to monitor electricity and water consumption by households and government entities in order to pass the summer’s peak consumption period without any shortages.

He pointed to the current year as the driest year over the past 50 years and stressed the need for taking consumption management programs seriously.

The official further mentioned the significance of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program, saying that a total of 290 major energy projects are going to be implemented under the framework of the mentioned program in the current Iranian calendar year.

The official put the total investment made in the mentioned projects at 80 trillion rials (about $1.9 billion) and expressed hope that like the previous phases, this phase of the program will also be completed as scheduled.

Four dams, several power plants, some water, and sewage treatment plants, and numerous rural water supply projects are among the projects that are going to be implemented in the current year under the framework of the A-B-Iran program.

Marking the seventh week of the A-B-Iran scheme in the current year, Ardakanian, on Tuesday, inaugurated 10 energy projects worth $80 million in three different provinces through video conference.

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On Monday, Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh, the managing director of Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir), warned, “This year, we will have a difficult peak period”, and called for the people’s cooperation so that this period can be passed without outages.

Mentioning three major factors creating some severe condition in terms of power supply in this year, the official last week explained, “This year, we are facing three issues. First, there was a very severe drought during which we saw a reduction in the water supply of the country’s hydropower plants to less than half. In this way, we lose the generation of about 4,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from hydropower sources.”

On the other hand, due to the intense premature heat, the cooling equipment entered the consumption circuit earlier than usual, he mentioned.

“And a new problem we are facing this year is the power consumption of illegal cryptocurrency mining units”, Motevalizadeh added.

Although every year nearly 3,000 MW is added to the country’s power generation capacity, the reduction in the rainfalls and the decline in the water storage behind the dams has reduced the electricity generation offsetting the added capacity.

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new strategies in recent years to manage the consumption and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

In late July 2020, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that his ministry was considering new incentive packages for low-consuming households and industrial electricity subscribers.

He also said that two programs were prepared for high-consuming subscribers so that by implementing these plans, these subscribers would also join the low-consumer group.

The official described the first program as a training course to teach consumption management methods with the help of knowledge-based companies and start-ups, and said: “Start-up companies will be formed in this field and will help us optimize the consumption of high-consuming subscribers by providing simple solutions.”

The second plan was to install solar panels on the roofs of high-consuming subscribers’ houses so that such subscribers would meet their electricity needs by installing these PV stations.

Meanwhile, the managing director of Tavanir has recently announced that his company has defined 40 programs for maintaining electricity supply and preventing power outages during the hot season peak consumption period.

Motevalizadeh underlined early increase in the temperature and water shortage for hydropower plants as the most important challenges this year, saying: “These issues have forced the early implementation of preventive programs and in this regard, 40 programs have been prepared by Tavanir, and will be implemented across the country.”

Based on the mentioned programs, the responsibilities of various ministries and specialized parent companies have been determined and assigned, the official said.

He noted that the ceiling for incentive packages allocated to each province has also been determined and the governorates of the provinces have been notified in this regard.

“Government organizations and entities are the first priority for implementing consumption management programs, and in this regard monitoring and optimization of air conditioning and lighting systems in such offices should be seriously pursued”, he stressed.

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Speaking in a meeting with water officials from the country’s drainage basin regions, Ardakanian said: “Currently, the Ministry of Energy is moving towards the establishment of a governance system with a focus on drainage basin territories.”

Mentioning the measures taken by the ministry in this regard, the official added: “very good measures have been taken for reforming the country’s water structure in a short period of time and the rest of the way will be passed with determination, responsibility, commitment, and a professional approach.”

Touching upon the ministry’s program for establishing fixed territories for the country’s drainage basins, the official said: “When we have fixed boundaries, the territory of rivers and water resources is clear, and we can move towards a system of governance in such specific regions; we need to move in a direction where we could be able to establish an organization of drainage basins….. this is a method and experience that has been done in the world and works perfectly.”

“Some prerequisites are necessary in order to reform the country’s water structure, preliminaries such as the implementation of water shortage adaptation plans in the provinces, passing the bill of the comprehensive water law, the integration of urban and rural water and sewage companies, etc.,” Ardakanian explained.

Although we need such prerequisites to change the structure, establishing these prerequisites also requires some preparation, he added.

According to Ardakanian, the formation of expert committees in drainage basin regions is one of the most essential steps that must be taken to be able to benefit from the existing capacities of water organizations in those regions.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Energy had submitted a proposed bill for water resources management to the cabinet committee for infrastructure, industry, and environment.

Swarming water-related problems are threatening many arid and semiarid regions of the world, and Iran is no exception.

Integrating such problems with health, environmental, political, socioeconomic, and sustainability issues have greatly increased demand for managing water-related problems in Iran over the past few years.

And in this regard, the government has been taking some measures for changing the way the country’s water resources have been managed so far.

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The inaugurated projects include the national electricity network’s new dispatching center, numerous power network modification and optimization projects, as well as installing new PV systems for nomadic households.

The national electricity network’s new dispatching center which has been completed with 11.44 trillion rials (about $272.3 million) of investment is using world’s latest technologies in Energy Management System (EMS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Wide Area Management System and Control (WAMS) systems.

The National Dispatching Center manages the entire power grid, including power plants, transmission lines and substations throughout the country.

Also, according to the mega project for modification and optimization of the power network in 10,000 villages during the current year, the power grid connecting 560 villages with 70,000 households will be optimized in the first phase.

Also, based on a program for supplying nomadic households with solar power, the Energy Ministry plans to provide such households with portable PV systems. According to the mentioned program, 20,000 nomadic households will benefit from solar power through PV systems.

The first phase of the A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19, 2020), during which 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion) were put into operation across the country.

In the second phase of the program that was carried out in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) 250 water and energy projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) were inaugurated in several provinces.

The third phase of the program was officially started in early April and like the previous phases, this year, too, the Energy Ministry is planning to inaugurate numerous water and electricity projects in various provinces every week.

In the last week of the previous Iranian calendar year (which was the last week of the second phase of the A-B-Iran scheme) Ardakanian had inaugurated several new systems for improving services in the water and electricity sectors.

The mentioned systems were put into operation in various areas including resource consumption improvement, asset utilization, human resource management, financial resources management, and reforming work processes in order to create transparency and to facilitate and accelerate affairs while eliminating possible bottlenecks.

A smart system for improving the Energy Ministry’s support and emergency centers called Homa, as well as a new customer services system called Chavoush were also among the launched systems.

A mechanized network monitoring system called Sanam was also put into operation; this system is aimed at monitoring the electricity networks of various provinces in order to reduce electricity losses and improve the efficiency of the country’s power network.

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Iran’s Energy Minister, Reza Ardekanian, and Majid Mahdi Hantoush attended a press conference after their meeting and elaborated on Iran and Iraq’s cooperation in supplying energy.

“Iran has always supported Iraq in supplying fuel for Iraq’s power plans whenever needed,” Hantoush noted.

The Iraqi minister went on to say that Iran and Iraq’s relations are expanding and continuous, adding that negotiations over Iraq’s debt to Iran have taken place.

“Iraq has to import energy since the country’s need is three times more than our capacity. This year we supplied 22000 MV electricity, reaching 28000 MV in special hours,” he highlighted.

“Due to climatic conditions in Iraq, Iraqis use electricity six times more than Iranian,” Hantoush referred.

“Negotiations and bilateral meetings between Iraq and Iran continue until we discuss all existing problems and finding solutions, especially about Iraq’s debts to Iran,” he concluded.

Iran’s energy minister also speaking in this joint press conference said that Iran helps Iraq reduce its electricity waste from 50% to 20%, meaning that 30% will be added to Iraq’s energy source.

Ardekanian said that the two countries had reached a framework to continue cooperation.

“Although Iran has a 50% decrease in the rain this year, it has been fully planned to supply water, electricity, and import to neighboring countries,” Ardakanian added.

“After the Islamic revolution, Iran’s energy capacity has increased from 7000 MV to 85000 MV. In comparison, our maximum contract with Iraq is 1300 MV, and the final price must be paid in Euro to Tavanir Company,” highlighted the minister.

Ardakanian states that Iran-Iraq Common Economic Commission has resumed its activity since last Iranian year (starting on March 21) and had expanded its relations with Oil and Energy ministries.

Referring to the coronavirus pandemic, Iran’s energy minister noted that negotiations took place with Iraq’s Trade Bank to supply needed currency to import coronavirus vaccine, adding that it is expected that the first payment will be made these days.

Ardakanian also said Iran would use its funds blocked in neighboring Iraq to purchase vaccines from Russia against the COVID-19 disease.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Hantoush in Tehran on Sunday, Ardakanian said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered that the money needed for buying COVID-19 vaccines be provided from funds held in different parts of the world.

“According to an agreement between Iran and Russia, part of Iraq’s debt to Iran will be spent on purchasing Russian vaccines,” the minister said.

Ardakanian said necessary arrangements with Baghdad and Moscow have been made and “we expect that the first payments will be made in the coming days.”

Iran has billions of dollars in a Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) account which processes Iraq’s payments for imports of natural gas and electricity from Iran.

However, the funds have been frozen because of the US sanctions on Iran which restrict the use of the dollar for transactions involving Tehran.

On Sunday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) announced that it has imported the largest consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China.

“This consignment of one million doses of the coronavirus vaccine arrived today at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport,” said IRCS Secretary-General Mohammad Hassan Ghosian Moghaddam.

Other than importing reliable foreign vaccines, Iran has developed its own vaccines which are currently in the last phases of human trials.

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The mentioned projects including a water supply project, a water treatment plant, a wastewater treatment plant, and a dam were put into operation with a total investment of 26 trillion rials (over $619 million) in Khuzestan, Mazandaran and Hormozgan provinces.

The projects were inaugurated under the framework of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program and also as part of the series of inaugurations made by the president over the past year and in the cuurrent Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).

The president also ordered the beginning of a project for constructing another dam in Mazandaran province in which nine trillion rials (about $214.2 million) is going to be invested.

The first phase of the A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19, 2020), during which 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion) were put into operation across the country.

In the second phase of the program that was carried out in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) 250 water and energy projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) were inaugurated in several provinces.

The third phase of the program was officially started on April 6 and like the previous phases, this year, too, the Energy Ministry is planning to inaugurate numerous water and electricity projects in various provinces every week.

In the first week of the third phase, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian inaugurated five major electricity projects worth 29 trillion rials (about $690.4 million) across the country to mark the beginning of the third phase of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program.

The inaugurated projects comprised of 8,142 sub-projects including numerous electricity supply projects, as well as power network modification and optimization projects.

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