Iran Launches New Power Plant in Southern Energy Hub of Asaluyeh

Iran has launched a first phase of a major power plant in the country’s main hub for producing natural gas.

In an order issued via video conference on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani opened the steam unit of the combined-cycle power plant in Asaluyeh, located south of Iran on the coasts of the Persian Gulf.

The facility would feed 160 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Iran’s national power grid, said a report by the official IRNA news agency, adding that the total capacity of the power plant would reach 480 MW once all units come on line.

The power plant has been designed and launched by MAPNA, Iran’s largest energy construction company which also owns the facility.

The IRNA report said the steam unit of the power plant is the first in Iran that enjoys a fully home-made distributed control system (DCS).

MAPNA has been behind many construction and renovation schemes in Iranian electricity factories in previous years, including the launch of steam units in the so-called combined-cycle facilities where the steam is raised through using the exhaust heat from the gas-fired combustion turbines.

The company has used 150 contractors for construction of Asaluyeh power plant, a process that started in 2016 and created 800 permanent jobs and led to indirect employment for 1,500 people.

Asaluyeh, a small country in Iran’s Bushehr province, is key to Iran’s massive natural gas sector where various refineries and petrochemical units run on gas pumped from South Pars gas field, the world’s largest natural gas reserve which is shared between Iran and Qatar.