The Minister of Energy of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the resumption of negotiations with Turkmenistan on increasing electricity imports, Ilna.news reports.
“We have resumed negotiations with Turkmenistan, and due to the arising adjournment (in the negotiations ed.), it was decided to import a significant amount of electricity from Turkmenistan,” Reza Ardakanian told to reporters.
Turkmenistan and Iran are long-standing traditional partners in the purchase, sale, and transit of Turkmen electricity. Since 2003, electricity has been supplied from Turkmenistan to Iran via the Balkanabat Gombad transmission line with a capacity of 220 kW.
Earlier it was reported that in order to increase Turkmenistan’s electricity exports, it is planned to reconstruct the power units of the Mary State Power Plant, build 400 kW Mary-Serakhs power transmission lines to the Turkmenistan-Iran border, and stretch similar lines from the Balkanabat State Power Plant.
In 2020, Turkmenistan increased the value of electricity exports by more than 2.4 times compared to 2019. The physical volume of deliveries, according to the country’s State Statistics Committee, increased by 2.1 times.
The Core Customers of Turkmen electricity are currently Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan. In the near future, it is planned to increase its supplies to neighboring countries.
According to the industry development plan, by 2024, electricity production in Turkmenistan should reach 33 billion kilowatt-hours per year. To achieve this goal, the existing productive facilities are being modernized. In 2018, the country’s first combined-cycle electric generating plant was opened in Mary.
Janmamed GULAMOV