Official: Iran Becomes Main Electricity Hub in Region
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian energy official announced that the country has turned into the main hub for electricity transactions in the region.
“With the increase in electricity exports and energy transactions with regional countries, Iran has turned into the region’s electricity hub,” Mohammad Behzad, Iran’s deputy energy minister for electricity and energy affairs, told Tasnim on Sunday.
He further noted that Iran currently exports electricity to Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan on a daily basis, adding that new projects are underway to boost the country’s power exports in the future.
Behzad also said Iran’s electricity exports to Turkey have now hit nearly 500 MW, up 150 MW compared to the same time last year.
He then announced that recent agreements between Iranian and Iraqi officials will make it possible to boost electricity exports to the Arab country by 50 percent, to 1500 MW.
“It is expected that the total volume of the country's electricity exports in the current (Iranian) year (started on March 21, 2013) will surpass 12 billion kilowatt hours,” the Iranian official stated.
And in January , Managing Director of Iran Power Generation and Transmission Company (TAVANIR) Homayoun Hayeri said the country is the first in the Middle East in terms of electricity generation.
“Iran’s electricity industry ranks 14th in the world and first in the Middle East in terms of electricity generation with an installed power generation capacity of 67,806 MW,” Hayeri added.