Iran opens new electricity dispatching center

Minister of Energy Reza Ardakanian has launched a new electricity dispatching center in a bid to modernize power grid systems in the country and to play a more influential role in the regional electricity market.

According to reports, he inaugurated the National Dispatching Center on Tuesday in a ceremony in the capital Tehran.

Ardakanian hailed the project as a major achievement for the government, saying it would significantly increase the reliability of the electricity grid in Iran.

The minister said the center will turn Iran into an intersection for energy transmission and distribution in the Western Asia region.

The center replaces a previous facility which served Iran’s grid management needs for 30 years. It will be operated by Iran’s Grid Management Company (IGMC) in two locations in the capital Tehran and the nearby provincial capital of Zanjan.

IGMC said on its website that it took some 11 years for the company to build and equip the facility which it said had cost more than 11.4 trillion rials (over $50 million) in government spending.

The new dispatching center will use some modern technologies for development and control of transmission and distribution networks, including the Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS), said a report by Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), which added that the facility would be able to serve Iran’s power grid needs for the next three decades.

Iran has seen a major expansion in its electricity sector in recent years both in terms of output and also in the modernization of equipment and infrastructure.

SS