POWER MINISTER ATTENDS MAPNA-SPONSORED CONFERENCE

Iran’s Minister of Power Hamid Chitchian joined the Sixth Thermal Power Plant Conference on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 in Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Tehran, Iran.

Chitchian, who had attended the conference as speaker of the closing ceremony, stressed the importance of increasing the efficiency of power plant units across the country in collaboration with MAPNA Group. “We have had negotiations with MAPNA managers to move beyond E-Class turbines and begin manufacturing F-Class and H-Class turbines” he said.

Minister of Power reassured the audience that thermal power plants will remain the key source of power generation across the world in the next fifty years.

Chitchian also provided fact and figures on the current state of Iran’s power industry. “The total installed capacity is 73,740 MW, of which 85 per cent is provided by gas, combined cycle and steam power plants” he said.

Minister of Power added that Iran needs to construct a power plant capacity of nearly 50 thousand MW in the next ten years, of which 26 thousand MW should have been accomplished and fed into the national grid by the end of the Sixth National Development Plan. He added that the current average efficiency rate of 37 percent for power plants should increase to 41 percent by the end of the Sixth National Development Plan.

Recounting a brief history of power plant industry indigenization through establishment of MAPNA, Chitchian stated that Iran is among a handful of countries that can procure their main power plant needs from the domestic market. “With foundation of MAPNA, the thermal power plant industry… was gradually indigenized. MAPNA has not only transferred know-how and technology, but also manufactured the bulk of the industry’s equipment” he said.

The closing ceremony of Sixth Thermal Power Plant Conference was held on Wednesday, January 20, 2016 in Tehran, Iran. Minister of Power Hamid Chitchian, MAPNA CEO Abbas Aliabadi, and IUST Chancellor Mohammad-Ali Barkhordari were among the attendees of the conference, in addition to MAPNA experts and managers, and academics from Iran’s technical universities. The ceremony concluded with signing of a MoU between MAPNA and Iran University of Science and Technology.