“All thermal power plants will have undergone overhaul by summer to improve efficiency and output,” ILNA reported Hamidreza Azimi as saying.
The routine process of overhaul for all the thermal stations is expected to finish at a cost of $460 million.
A total of 123 thermal power plants are operational. Regarding thermal power generation, Iran is ninth in the world with a nominal capacity to produce 65,000 megawatts of electricity, according to Financial Tribune.
Azimi said the efficiency of thermal power plants was 38% last year and is expected to reach 38.5% this summer.
The energy efficiency of a conventional thermal power station, considered salable energy produced as a percent of the heating value of the fuel consumed, is typically 33% to 48%. Considering all the heat produced by gas and steam turbines, their efficiency is limited and governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
“Last year eight thermal plants with a capacity of 1,100 MW came on stream. Another 22 plants with total capacity of 4,000 MW will come on stream by next March,” Azimi was quoted as saying.
An estimated $3.5 billion was invested in power plants in the last two years. Iran has an installed capacity of 81,000 MW and plans to raise output to more than 85,000 MW by the end of the year.
Thermal units, which either use steam, gas-powered or combined-cycle turbines, account for 65,000 MW of the total electricity production.
Iran has various types of climate in different regions. In summer, the average daytime temperature is between 30 and 36 degrees centigrade.
While the temperature in the southwestern Khuzestan Province may pass 50 degrees centigrade, it can be as low as 15 degrees centigrade in Ardebil Province in the northwest.