Iran, Russia ink power deal

TEHRAN, Mar. 15 (MNA) – Iran’s energy minister has announced reaching of an agreement with two Russian companies on building power houses in Iran. At a meeting with the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Hamid Chitchian reported on the formation of a joint committee for permanent energy cooperation at deputy ministerial level to pursue mutual collaborations between the two countries; “a new agreement has been reached with Inter RAO Group on rehabilitation of old power plants and financing of power projects which will soon become operational.” Chitchian voiced complete readiness to run the executive phases of constructing a 1400MW thermal power plant asserting “the visit to Tehran of Russian President Vladimir Putin caused mobility in the relations between the two sides leading to signing of various agreements in water and electricity sectors; hopefully, the power plant building project which will be carried out by Technopromexport Company of Russia will become finalized by the end of the current week.” The member of the cabinet further pointed to the linking and synchronization of Iranian and Russian electricity grids through Azerbaijan Republic, Armenia and Georgia; “the project will be accomplished via Azerbaijan in 2016 or 2018 while the connection will be established via Georgia and Armenia in 2019.” Iranian energy minister also expressed willingness to finalize the deal for synchronization of the five country’s electricity networks during the upcoming Baku-Tbilisi summit. “Iran’s financing share would be 15 per cent in the power house project while the figure for the Russian side is 85 per cent,” underlined the official adding “the construction period will last for five years with Iran paying 3 per cent of its share per year.” Alexander Novak, for his part, noted that venues for cooperation between Iran and Russia have been expanded in numerous areas following Putin’s trip two Iran saying “the Islamic republic of Iran holds promising prospects with regard to electricity transfer through Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia as well as construction of nuclear power plants.” “Both parties are active in the field of technologies for synchronization of electricity transmission systems,” highlighted Novak concluding “we welcome Iranian firms and investors in areas of power generation equipment and Russia is ready to invest in Iran’s power industry.”