Iran Uses More Gas in Power Sector

Iran turned 40.188bn m³ of natural gas into power in the six months from March 21, an increase of 7.2% year-on-year. Overall, power demand was up 7%, at 179 TWh, with the biggest percentage increase coming from gasoil, according to the latest energy ministry report published September 27. But gas accounted for about 93% of the fuel mix.  

The 7.2% rise was not uniform as the first three months saw a 13% rise, using 18.3bn m³. During the second half of year, gas use will slide to meet heating demand, which triples in winter.

Iran added 715 MW to power generation capacity and it is projected to add further 3.1 GW in the second half of fiscal year, based on energy ministry statistics. During the six months Iran also used 1.4bn litres of gas oil in the power sector, up by 48%, and 9.7% more fuel oil, or 1.5bn litres.

Coming to electricity generation, the figure stood at 178.775 TWh, which indicates 7% growth year-on-year.

Iran increased gas export by 24% to 5TWh, but its imports remained almost unchanged at 2.36TWh.

Iran’s power generation capacity stands at 77.143 GW, of which renewables, nuclear and hydroelectricity have 0.42%, 1.29% and 15.31% respectively, the remainder (82.98%) being gas.

Iran plans to increase the power generation capacity to 100 GW by 2021, but renewables will have the greatest growth pace, projected to reach 5 GW from todays' 322 MW.

The energy ministry’s latest weekly report says that renewables capacity grew by 58 MW and another 804 MW will come later this year.

Dalga Khatinoglu