TEHRAN - Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) says electricity generation capacity from the country’s thermal power plants reached nearly 73 gigawatts (GW) with the launch of a small electricity station in the country’s southeast.
TPPH’s head of expansion projects Muhammad Ramezani said that thermal power currently accounts for 81% of Iran’s total electricity generation capacity which also comes from hydroelectric dams, the renewables, diesel plants, small generators and one nuclear power plant in the country’s southern coast.
Ramezani made the announcement after a 200-megawatt gas-fired electricity generator, launched by Butia steel company in Iran’s province of Kerman, synchronized with the Iranian power grid.
He said private owners, including industrial manufacturers, now own some 49 GW of capacity at Iran’s thermal power plants.
Latest figures by Iran’s Energy Ministry show some 22.558 GW of Iranian thermal power plants solely use gas turbines, some 15.829 GW work on steam turbines and some 34.539 GW operate on a combined cycle system where the exhaust heat from gas turbines is used to raise steam to drive the steam turbines.