Of the 20 projects, six projects were in Kermanshah, four were in Gilan, three in East Azarbaijan and three in Fars, two in Bushehr, one in Hamedan and one provincial rural electricity supply project, the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven reported.
Among the six utility projects in the western Kermanshah Province was the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Harsin County, which has a capacity to treat 13,500 cubic meters of sewage per day and covers 110,000 people.
Power projects in the province included three substations, 4.6 km of transmission and distribution lines, and an 8.6-megawatt small-scale power plant with distributed generation system, which were aimed at increasing network reliability, reducing energy losses and power supply for new subscribers.
Distributed generation refers to electricity produced in small quantities near the point of use, as alternative or supplement to traditional centralized grid-connected power. It reduces the cost and complexity associated with transmission and distribution, while offsetting peak electricity demand and stabilizing the local grid.
Electricity Projects
In the northern Gilan Province, electricity projects focused on increasing the capacity of substations and building a mobile substation.
A mobile or portable substation is a self-contained trailer or container equipped with high and medium voltage components of a full substation, including power transformer, switchgear and disconnect switches, metering transformers, surge arresters, as well as protection and control equipment. It can be moved at any time with a tractor for immediate installation and operation.
The power projects in East Azarbaijan Province in northwest Iran and the southern Fars and Bushehr provinces came on stream with the aim of supplying electricity, increasing the stability of the network, reducing blackouts and supplying electricity to new subscribers.
Rural electricity supply to 83 villages in 17 provinces was also among projects that came on stream on Tuesday.
The villages were located in the provinces of Isfahan, East and West Azarbaijan, Bushehr, Kerman, Khuzestan, South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Zanjan, Semnan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Fars, Kermanshah, Lorestan, Markazi, Hormozgan and Yazd.
Water, Wastewater Projects
In the western Hamedan Province, the first phase of the water supply project to Malayer County from Kalan Dam was inaugurated through the construction of a water treatment plant in Malayer and 38 kilometers of transmission line.
With the launch of the water project, more than 170,000 people have now access to stable water supply.
The new facility will supply 12 million cubic meters of drinking water from the dam to people in urban and rural areas.
Kalan Dam can hold 45 million cubic meters of water and currently has 41 mcm. Built on Haramabad River, the dam is the largest in western Hamedan Province.
The plant is designed to meet the needs of Malayer, nearby villages, farms and Sahand Industrial Town. Moreover, 5.5 mcm will go for preserving the environment. It will treat 380 liters of water per second.
Due to chronic shortage of surface water, farmers in the province resort to groundwater from illegally-dug deep wells. The government has started sealing unauthorized wells to conserve the rapidly depleting resource and discourage the harmful practice of digging and using illegal wells.
Of the 7,300 illegal wells in the province, about 4,000 were sealed in the past five years and helped save 268 million cubic meters of water. The move also helps maintain a semblance of stability in groundwater levels that are in sharp decline.
Hamedan is Iran’s fifth grape producer after Fars, Qazvin, Khorasan Razavi and West Azarbaijan. Other agricultural products in the province include tomatoes, potatoes, watermelon and seeds.
Building dams and wastewater treatment plants are among measures taken to help increase the farming community’s access to water nationwide.