Azernews.Az

The power generation capacity of Iran's hydroelectric power plants has increased by 16 percent.

Farid Estiri, official at Iran's Water Resources Management Company, said that Iran's hydroelectric power plants generated 14.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, which is a 16 pct rise year on year.

The maximum output of the hydroelectric power plant was related to July 24, 2013, which hit 100,000 megawatts, he said.

In October, the IRNA News Agency reported that the efficiency of Iran's hydroelectric power plants increased by 24 percent in the first half of the past Iranian calendar year.

Some 9,818 gigawatt/hours of electricity have been produced at the country's hydroelectric plants in the first half of the past year.

The total capacity of the plants stands at 10,000 gig watt hours.

Power generation capacity in Iran has grown by seven percent annually during the past 10 years. The figure has averaged 3.5 percent in the world.

Iran is currently the biggest electricity producer in the Middle East.

Iran's total electricity generation currently stands at 70,000 megawatt hours.

Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

Iran 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 power plants.