Capacity of thermal power plants rises over 3,000 MW

The nominal capacity of Iran’s thermal power plants has reached 72,027 megawatts (MW), registering an increase of 3,000 MW over the past 12 months, IRNA reported.

The government has managed to increase the capacity of the country’s thermal power plants including steam, gas, and combined cycle power plants from 69,000 MW to over 72,027 since it took office in August 2021.
Combined cycle power plants account for the biggest share of the country’s power generation capacity with a total capacity of 34,219 MW, followed by gas power plants with a capacity of 21,979 MW and steam power plants with a capacity equal to 15,829 MW.
Increasing the country’s power generation capacity and preventing blackouts during peak consumption periods have been among the Energy Ministry’s top priorities.
Back in August 2021, Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian announced that his ministry was planning to boost the country’s power generation capacity by 35,000 MW over the next four years.
The mentioned figure would be achieved through the construction of thermal power plants with 15,000 MW of capacity, and renewable power plants with the capacity of 10,000 MW by the public and private sectors, as well as the construction of new power plants with 10,000 megawatts capacity by large industries.

Over the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease in 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 programs to meet the country’s power demand during peak periods and to prevent outages.
Constructing new units in the country’s power plants and also building new power plants for major industries are among the mentioned programs that are being pursued seriously by the ministry in collaboration with other related government entities.
The Islamic Republic’s total power generation capacity currently stands at about 85,500 gigawatts most of which is supplied by thermal power plants.

Source: Tehran Times