Iran’s electricity output ups by 4 per cent

Iran produced 181,972.2 gigawatt hours of electricity from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) so far.

The figure shows four per cent more compared to the same period of the previous year, the IRIB News Agency reported.

Thermal power plants' output accounted for 171,246.6 gigawatt hours of the mentioned figure, which is 2.08 per cent more than the previous year.

Iran's hydroelectric plants also produced 10,725.6 gigawatt hours of electricity in the mentioned period, which is 20.99 per cent more than the previous year.

Deputy Oil Minister Sattar Mahmoudi said earlier this month that Iran's electricity exports currently stands at $2 billion.

"The country also exports $3.1 billion worth of electricity equipment and services," the IRNA News Agency quoted Mahmoudi as saying.

"Iran annually exports 8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to the neighboring countries," he said, adding that the mentioned figure is about 3 per cent of the country's total output.

"Iran annually constructs some power plants with the total output capacity of 5,000 megawatt hours," he added.

Iran's power generation capacity is currently over 70 gigawatts.

The country currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of three new power plants. (Trend)