Plan to Upgrade SP Power Station

Upgrading the South Pars Gas Field’s central power plant to the combined-cycle system has been planned, which can use both gas and steam to generate electricity, the director of production at Pars Oil and Gas Company said.

“To curb the adverse effects on the environment and increase efficiency, enhancing the South Pars power plant to combined-cycle system has been put on the agenda,” Alireza Ebadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday.

A combined-cycle power plant produces up to 50% more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple-cycle plant. The waste heat from the gas turbine is routed to the nearby steam turbine, which generates extra power. According to Ebadi, efficiency rate will reach 60% from the current 25-40% with the upgraded system.

"Iran has decided to phase out inefficient power plants, improve the aging electricity infrastructure and move toward modern power production technology," Mohsen Tarztalab, the head of Iran's Thermal Power Plants Holding Company, said last year.

"Under regulations outlined by the Energy Ministry, all new power plant units must have efficiency of 58% and above," he added.

Ebadi said the power plant, which became operational eight years ago, provides backup electricity for phases 1-8 of the giant gas field, as well as electricity for eight refineries at the site, gas condensate installations and South Pars downstream industries.

South Pars is the world's largest gas field shared by Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

"The 1,000-megawatt power plant comprises six gas units along with a gas pressure reducing station, a compressor station, a fire station, two 132-kilovolt substations and a 400-kV substation," he said, adding that it was connected to the national power grid in October. About 800 MW of new electricity generation capacity were added to the national grid over the past few months, an increase of nearly 1% in the country's 77,000-MW installed capacity.

source: Financial Tribune