Gas Accounts for 85% of Input in Iran’s Thermal Power Plants

Iran’s thermal power plants have consumed 85 percent natural gas and 15 percent liquid fuel in the current Iranian fiscal year, which started on March 21, 2015.

Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian said this is a great achievement for the country’s power industry, because the use of natural gas as a clean fuel is an advantage in protecting the environment, Shana news agency reported on December 22.

The goal of increasing 50,000 megawatts of electricity to the country’s electricity production capacity over the next 10 years obliges officials to expand renewable energy projects, he added.

Improper planning caused the peak of consumption during summer surged to 50,177 megawatts, he noted.

Iran’s power generation capacity is currently 73,744 megawatts, according to Iran Power Transmission, Generation and Distribution Company. Household, agriculture, and industrial sectors account for 34.3 percent, 17.3 percent, and 30 percent of electricity consumption in the country. Some 45297 million cubic meters of gas has been delivered to power plants since the beginning of the current year till December 11.

Falahatian said on December 20 that Iran plans to boost the efficiency of its power plants to 45-47 percent over the next three years.

“Currently, power plants are running at 32-33 percent efficiency on average, he noted. But, the average efficiency of thermal plants is 37 percent.”

Manoochehr Taheri, director of the dispatching center at the National Iranian Gas Company, said on November 7 that natural gas accounted for 69 percent of fuel needed by the power plants in the past Iranian year (March 2014-March 2015), and is predicted to be 81 percent in the current year (March 2015-March 2016).