List of power stations in Iran

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By 2012, Iran had roughly 400 power plant units. By the end of 2013, Iran had a total installed electricity generation capacity of 70,000 MW, which had been increased from 90 MW in 1948, and 7024 MW in 1978.^[1][2][3] It is planned to add more than 5,000 MW of generation capacity annually to the power grid, which will almost double the total power generation capacity to 122,000 MW by 2022.^[4][5] The government of Iran plans to privatize 20 power plants by September 2010.^[6] Iran's peak demand for electricity was 45,693 MW during the summer of 2013.^[7]

It was predicted Iran accounts for 17.08% of MENA power generation by 2014. The natural gas was the major fuel used to generate electricity in Iran in 2009, accounting for an estimated 56.8% of primary energy demand (PED), followed by oil at 40.8% and hydro power at 1.4%.^{[citation needed]} As of 2010, the average efficiency of power plants in Iran was 38 percent. The figure should reach to 45 percent within five years and 50 percent under Vision 2025.^[8][9]

Electricity generation in 2008, accounted for 203.8 billion kWh or roughly one percent of world's total production, which was increased by 5.9 percent comparing with the year before. In 2008, the total electricity generated was 190.2 billion kWh which 93.3% was generated by power plants affiliated with the Ministry of Energy and 13.6 billion kWh (6.7%) by other institutions, which were mostly from the private sector.^[10][11] The largest share of electricity (91.1 billion kWh) was generated by steam power plants while diesel power plants accounted for the smallest share of generation (0.2 billion kWh). In 2008, the highest growth in generation of electricity belonged to gas and combined cycle power plants with 9.3 percent growth rate while the amount of electricity generated by hydroelectric power plants declined by 1.7 percent. As of 2010, the consumer price of electricity in Iran was 1.6 US cents per kilowatt hour while the real production cost was about 8.0 US cents.^[10][12] (See also: Cost of electricity by source)

In 2010, 900,000 jobs were directly or indirectly related to the power industry in Iran. Currently, Iran's spares power capacity stands at 3 per cent, but this amount is much lower than the ideal 25 percent of peak power used.^[12] It has been estimated that 23.5 percent of the electricity generation is wasted in the transmission network.^[12] Iran's power grid has been connected to seven neighboring countries Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan^{[citation needed]} and annually, exports 5.5 TWh of electricity.^{[citation needed]}