Houshang Falahatian made the remarks while describing the country’s plans for development of electricity trade in the post-JCPOA era adding “one major priority for Iran is to expand electricity exchange with neighboring countries especially the ones in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The official noted that development of electricity exchanges between Iran and Turkmenistan have been put on the agenda and final negotiations have already been held between the two countries; “the construction process for a 400-kilovolt electric transmission line between Tehran and Ashgabat has begun.”
Falahatian further emphasized that the conduction of the line will be accomplished within two years’ time recalling “electricity exchanges between Iran and Turkmenistan is expected to experience a threefold rise one the new power grid come on stream.”
“At the present time, only 350 watts of electricity is being swapped between Iran and Turkmenistan,” underscored the official stressing that operation of the new transmission line will increase the volume of exchanges to a total of 1,000 megawatts.
He also reported on the plan to increase the volume of electricity exchanges between Iran and Armenia from the current 350 to 1,200 megawatts saying “Iranian firms have launched construction of a 400-kilovolt transmission line between Iran and Armenia which will be implemented within one and a half years.”
Houshang Falahatian had previously touched upon talks with Georgia, Azerbaijan Republic and Russia over connecting electrical grids of the three nations maintaining that connection of Iranian and Russian power grids will provide the possibility for Iran’s electricity network to join those of European Union member states.
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