Mehr News Agency, Iran
Nov 7 2009

Iran to connect its power grid to Russia, Persian Gulf states minister

Tehran, 7 November: Iran plans to connect its national power grid with
Russia and the Persian Gulf states, energy ministry caretaker said
here on Saturday [7 November].

ILNA News Agency quoted Hamid Chitchian as saying that, currently
Iran’s national power grid is connected to Iraq, Turkey, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

We plan to connect our power grids to Russia via Azerbaijan as well as
linking to the Persian Gulf states via sub-sea cabling, he added.

We are planning to connect the national power grid to new countries
within the next two years, he noted.

According to Chitchian, Iran currently exports electricity to
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Turkey.

Iran’s electricity export faced 123 per cent increase in the current
Iranian calendar year (started March 20, 2009).

Iran is among the top ten manufacturers of gas turbines with a
capacity of 160 megawatts. Iran has acquired self-sufficiency of over
80 per cent in constructing hydraulic turbines and over 90 per cent in
producing gas turbines.

Within the next few years, Iran can join the list of countries that
produce power plant technology. Iran has achieved the technical
expertise to set up hydroelectric, gas and combined cycle power
plants.

Iran is not only self-sufficient in power plant construction but has
also concluded a number of contracts on implementing projects in
neighbouring states. A research by the Ministry of Energy indicated
that between 15,000-20,000 megawatts of capacity should be added in
Iran’s electricity production in the next 20 years.

Iran ranks 19th largest producer and 20th largest consumer of
electricity in the world.