The privatisation in Iran’s power generation industry is in its final stages, according to Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou, with 45 power plants having been privatised or currently being privatised.
The Iranian constitution mandates that the generation and distribution sectors of the power industry should be privatised while transmission should remain state-owned, he noted.
Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Behzad previously also said that Iran will become self-sufficient in manufacturing equipment and goods which are used in the power industry by the end of its current calendar year, which ends on March 19, 2013.
Iranian power generation capacity currently stands at 65.2 GW, he added, and Iran is currently in 15th place worldwide by this metric.
The Iranian energy ministry plans to increase electricity generation capacity by 5 GW by March 19, 2013.
Iran’s aim for the end of its Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan in March 2016 is to boost its electricity generation capacity by 25 GW to reach 73 GW, according to Namjou.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.