Iran Resuming Pre-Sanctions Power Output Growth

Related Articles

U.S. Power Plant Proposals Surge by 90% as Electricity Demand Rises

2 weeks ago

India Raises its Long-Term Power Demand Forecast

February 27, 2024

Grid Expansion about to become Biggest Transition Problem

February 15, 2024

The latest statistics. released by Iran’s Energy Ministry indicate that the country added about 2 gigawatts (GW) to its power generation capacity during the 10 months of the current fiscal year (started on March 21). and one more GW would be added more by the end of the year.
The country’s nominal power generation capacity stood at 78.068 GW in January 2017 and the figure would reach 77.116 GW by March 2017.
This is the first time since 2012. when western sanctions on Iran were imposed. that Iran experiences a 3-GW power output growth.
Iran needs a 5-percent power generation growth annually. but the figure was below the mentioned about during 2012-2015. For instance. Iran added only 1.3% to its power generation level during the last fiscal year.
The low growth during the last several years led to decreasing the country’s power export and increasing electricity imports significantly.
For instance. in 2012. Iran was exporting 11.744 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity and its imports stood at 3.718 billion kWh. For 300 days of the current fiscal year. Iran’s electricity export declined to 6.183 billion kWh and its imports reached 3.64 billion kWh.
Iran plans to accelerate the power growth pace in the coming years. based on the chart below:
 
In total. the country would increase the nominal power generation to 100 GW by 2020. of which the renewables share would be 5 percent. Currently. the percentage stands at 0.3 percent.
One of the major problems in Iran’s power sector is the low efficiency of power plants. which stands at about 37.1 percent in average.
Iran plans to phase out the old plants with less than 23 percent efficiency and increase the share of combined-cycle power plants share in the total power genration from the current 25 percent to 50 percent by 2020.
The official statistics also indicate that the country’s actual power generation capacity is about 58.985GW. or about 17GW less than the nominal power output capacity.
Iran’s gas usage in power plants increased by 8.1 percent to 51.926 billion cubic meters in 300 days of the current fiscal year.
Iran also consumed 3.573 billion liters of gas oil (33.8% decline Y/Y) as well as 2.898 billion liters of fuel oil (48.5% decline Y/Y) in power plants during the mentioned period.
Iran is planning to cut liquid fuels in power sector by increasing gas deliveries in coming years as well.
In 300 days. Iran generated 244.878 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity.