Tehran, Iran, Sept. 12
Trend:
Ali Shams Ardakani, head of the Energy Commission of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, said the country’s private sector plans to boost its cooperation with European nations and member states of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the sector of energy.
“Cooperation with 27 ECO member states and European nations in the sector of energy and electricity is high on the agenda of the private sector,” Ardakani told ILNA on September 12.
Referring to a meeting with the European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Miguel Arias Canete, he said the commissioner had hailed Tehran’s success to be able to connect its national power grid to those of Georgia and Armenia’s.
Canete noted that Iran could use the route to reach Ukraine and later the European Union, Ardakani further said.
He added that Iran needs to forge closer power cooperation with Tajikistan in order to be able to address its seasonal power use peak.
“Iran can have similar cooperation with Europe,” Ardakani said.
Iran's electricity industry ranks 14th in the world in terms of output and 19th in terms of consumption.
The country is the largest exporter and importer of electricity in the Middle East and exports power to Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. Azerbaijan and Armenia supply electricity to Iran under swap agreements.
Iran's installed power generation capacity is around 79,000 megawatts, over 62,000 MW of which comes from thermal power plants that burn fossil fuels along with hydropower plants (12,000 MW), Bushehr nuclear plant (1,000 MW) in south Iran, distributed generation stations (1,500 MW) and renewables (less than 500 MW).
The government aims to bring online 5,000 MW of new power output capacity annually through 2022, the end of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
National electricity demand is forecast to exceed 57,000 MW next summer, as people turn on air-conditioners to alleviate simmering temperatures.
