Azernews.Az

Iran's power exports to six Middle Eastern countries increased considerably, Managing director of Iran Power Generation Transmission & Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR) Homayoun Haeri said.

"Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan are the mentioned countries," the Mehr News Agency quoted Haeri as saying.

"Iran's power exports and trade with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Turkey from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) so far have faced 12, 10, 188, 150 and 111 per cent increase, respectively," he said.

"Iran has become the new electricity hub of the Middle East," Haeri added.

The power generation capacity in Iran increased by 7 per cent annually during the past 10 years. The figure averaged 3.5 per cent in the world.

Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. In an effort to diversify its destination markets, Iran plans to export electricity to Europe and Africa.

Tehran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has ‎attracted‎ more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of ‎three new power‎plants.

Based on the Fifth Five-Year Economic ‎Development Plan, Iran should annually add 5,000 MW to its power generation capacity.

Iran plans to boost ‎its electricity generation capacity to ‎‎reach 73GW by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic ‎Development Plan (March ‎‎2016).