Eurasia Press & News
Turkey and Iran have agreed to build three power plants expected to use natural gas to generate 6000 MW and also plan to build hydroelectric plants together, a senior energy official confirmed recently. Turkish energy minister Hilmi Guler signed a memorandum of understanding on the power plants, which will be built in Iran by the Turkish private sector, during a visit to Tehran in August.
“Three 2000 MW thermal plants will be built, in total it will be 6000 MW,” the Turkish official told Reuters from Tehran, adding that the building of hydroelectric plants was also foreseen.
The gas-fired plants and hydro facilities would have a total capacity of 16000 MW, while transmission lines would be built to enable exchange of electricity between the countries.
Iranian energy minister Parviz Fattah said an opportunity for energy exchange was seen because the peak hours differed between Iran and Turkey.
In July, Turkish officials said they planned to invest US$3.5 billion in Iran’s gas fields from 2008. Ankara has signed a preliminary deal to use Iran as a transit route for Turkmen gas and to develop Iran’s South Pars gas field to take gas to Europe.
