Iran starts electricity import from Azerbaijan

In order to reduce restrictions on electricity supply, electricity imports from Azerbaijan began on Thursday, said Iranian Energy Ministry’s Spokesman for Electricity Industry Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, Report informs, citing foreign media.

Saying that with the synchronization of Moghan power transmission lines to the electricity network of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the import of electricity from this country began, he added, “Currently, 73 megawatts (MW) of electricity is injected from this transmission line to the internal network of Iran.”

The amount of electricity imported from this transmission line can increase up to 130 MW during peak consumption hours.

Earlier this month, he had also announced that the country will import 140 megawatts (MW) of electricity from Turkmenistan in a bid to meet domestic power need.
Emphasizing the ministry’s efforts to meet the country’s electricity requirement, he said that 140 MW of electricity will be imported from Turkmenistan at the first stage, which will meet the power need of some part of the Khorasan region (northeastern Iran).

Although every year nearly 3,000 MW is added to the country’s power generation capacity, the reduction in the rainfalls and the decline in the water storage behind the dams has reduced the electricity generation, offsetting the added capacity, according to the managing director of Tehran Electricity Distribution Company said Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir).

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new strategies in recent years to manage consumption and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

In late July 2020, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that his ministry considered new incentive packages for low-consuming households and industrial electricity subscribers.