Iran exporting 110MW of electricity to Afghanistan

According to Farahnakian, Iran has the capacity to export 175 MW of electricity to the neighboring country, IRNA reported.

“Our country's electricity network is now connected to the city of Herat in Afghanistan and electricity transmission is carried out through three or four power transmission lines,” he explained.

Farahnakian noted that the two countries are planning to implement some new projects to boost their electricity exchange to 500-600 MW.

Connecting electricity network with neighboring countries with the aim of expanding electricity exchanges is one of the programs that the Iranian Energy Ministry has been pursuing seriously over the past few years.

Outlining the Energy Ministry’s major programs for the next four years, Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian has underlined electricity diplomacy and the synchronization of Iran's electricity network with the countries in the region including Russia and the Persian Gulf nations as a major focus of his planning for the future.

Referring to the synchronization of the country's electricity network with neighboring countries, Mehrabian had said: "It is possible to exchange electricity with Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq."

Earlier this month, Farahnakian had announced that the project for synchronizing the electricity networks of Iran and Russia through Azerbaijan will start in late April.

According to the official, half of the project’s primary studies have been conducted and completed and the executive operation of the project is expected to begin in late April after all three countries send comprehensive reports to the Iranian consultant of the project.

“Russia and many other neighboring countries have winter peaks consumption periods, while about 40 percent of our electricity capacity is left unused in the winter and our power plants go through an overhaul in the cold season, so we can use this capacity to supply the electricity needed by our neighbors in winter through connecting our power grid with those of such countries,” Farahnakian said regarding the benefits of the synchronization project.

Back in September 2021, former Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian had announced that a research project for the synchronization of the electricity networks of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia was underway by his ministry.

According to Ardakanian, there are two possible routes for the synchronization of Iran and Russia’s power grids, one of which is through Armenia and Georgia and the other is through Azerbaijan.
The route through Azerbaijan is currently more plausible and Iran is more inclined toward this country since, in a meeting with Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev back in February 2019,

Ardakanian had announced that the two countries electricity networks would become synchronized.

Source: Tehran Times