Foreign firms to build power houses in Iran

Mohsen Tarztalab, the General Manager of Iran's Thermal Power Plant Holding (TPPH), described signing of new contracts for designing and construction of new power stations in collaboration with foreign investors during the post-JCPOA era saying “a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been recently inked with Russian contractor Technoprom energy firm for building a 1400MW power plant in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.”

He noted that a different agreement has been signed with various South Korean companies over construction of six new power houses; “accordingly, general contracts for building three combined cycle power plants were signed during earlier visit of the South Korean president to Tehran.”

Moreover, South Korea's Hyundai Engineering Company (HEC) and Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) have signed agreements with Iran over joint construction of three other power generating plants in Zanjan, Qom and Bafgh cities.

Tarztalab outlined technology transfer for designing and manufacturing F-Class turbines as another development project pursued in the Iranian power industry during the post sanction era adding “so far, MoUs have been sealed between domestic firms and Germany’s Siemens for transfer of the mentioned technology which will boost efficiency of existing facilities.”

The deal with Germans aims to indigenize the required technical knowledge in order to bring about self-sufficiency in construction of F-Class turbines; “in addition to foreigners, a number of contracts have also been signed with private sector firms for building generating plants,” he continued.

TPPH managing director, while deeming optimization of existing plants as another objective pursued in the new era, stated “in the current year, an innovative project was carried out which added about 520 megawatts to output capacity at a low cost in a very short time.”

He estimated that operation of three new power house units by the end of the current year will add nearly 488 megawatts to the country’s power production capacity reiterating “over the past three years, a total of 31 power plants with a total capacity of 4480 megawatts have come on-stream inside the country; 18 of them built in partnership with the private sector.”

HA/3754039