“Repairs of a turbine at a gas pressure station in Jahrom, in southern Fars Province, have been completed by Iranian engineers,” ILNA quoted Saeed Tavakoli as saying.
This has helped in important technical maintenance work without relying on foreigners. If the same work was done by foreign engineers it would cost $390,000 for each turbine, he said.
“This knowledge will be transferred to other parts of the country. So far there are 295 turbines in the gas supply network and with modern know-how we can significantly cut repair costs,” Financial Tribune quoted Tavakoli as saying.
In March 2016, the German engineering giant Siemens signed an agreement with Mapna, Iran’s top engineering and energy enterprise, to collaborate on sharing know-how for F-class gas turbine technology and modernize the power supply system.
According to the agreement, Mapna would acquire the technology to manufacture F-class gas turbines and Siemens was to deliver more than 20 gas turbines and associated generators over the next decade.
However, in the August of last year, Siemens said it was pulling out its Iran business after the US re-imposed economic sanctions.
The Energy Ministry is planning to build more gas-fired power plants to help meet growing demand for electricity said to be approximately 7% each year.
Iran seeks to increase its nominal power capacity from the present 81,000 megawatts to 100,000 MW by 2022, with the bulk of the new power plants using natural gas.