Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan to syncronize power grids
IRNA web site
11 Dec 04
Tehran, 11 December: By signing a tripartite agreement in a meeting
here Saturday [11 December] Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan agreed to
synchronize their power grids.
The document was inked by the managing directors of Iran’s Power
Generation, Transmission and Distribution Company (TAVANIR), Russia’s
Reivas and Azerbaijan’s Azer Energy.
Managing Director of TAVANIR Mohammad Ahmadian said that such
synchronization will enable the three countries to benefit from the
facilities of one another’s grids in case of power shortage or
failure.
Putting the volume of energy exchanged among the signatories of the
document at 500 MWs, he noted: “The operations for construction of
power transmission lines are already underway and the exchange of
electrical energy will start in 2006.
“The synchronization of the three power grids will expand the national
power network on the one hand and will make it more stable on the
other. Thus, Iran’s power network will be synchronized with Russia’s
200,000-MW power grid via Azerbaijan, which will pave the way for
introducing Iran’s power industry to the world market.”
For his part, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russia’s and
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) electricity monopoly United
Energy Systems (UES) Anatoli Chubais underlined the significance of
synchronization of Iran’s power grid with that of Russia to his
country.
“Once the project is implemented, the power grids of the three
countries will operate in parallel. This would facilitate transmission
of power to any destination in the three countries at any time,” he
added.
Addressing the meeting, the deputy head of Azer Energy, Marlen
Askarov, he said that given that peak time in Iran and the two CIS
countries occur in summer and winter respectively, the three states
can compensate each other’s shortages.
“Besides exchange of energy, the project aims to stabilize the power
networks of the three countries,” he added, hoping that other regional
countries will also sign such agreements in the future.