Iran’s electricity industry transitioning to advanced models

TEHRAN- The managing director of Iran's Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Management Company (Tavanir) said: The country's electricity industry is transitioning from traditional models to advanced and resilient ones in critical and sensitive conditions.

According to IRNA, Mohammad Allahdad said on Tuesday at the water and electricity industry meeting of Zanjan province, with a comprehensive analysis of resilience and sustainability strategies for the country's power grid in crisis conditions, considering recent experience (war), adding: The stability of the power grid is not only a technical necessity but also a vital component for national security.

Allahdad added: Given the vastness of the country's power grid (over one million kilometers of network and 910,000 transmission and super-distribution substations), centralized management alone is not sufficient, and moving toward "decentralized and sustainable governance" in facilities, substations, and power plants is an unavoidable requirement.

He referred to the grid's performance in facing threats according to field assessments and said: We witnessed the continuation of grid stability for the twenty-third consecutive year, even under conditions where the enemy targeted energy infrastructure with direct attacks.

Allahdad, pointing to the extent of the damages, stated: More than two thousand areas of the country's power grid were struck, and 4,500 megawatts of capacity from mainly private-sector power plants were destroyed.

The managing director of Tavanir Company continued: Despite this level of destruction, the country's power grid was able to maintain its stability due to its designed structure, the lack of centralization in power plants, and smart management, which was the cornerstone of the country's stability.

Referring to the resilience of dispatching centers (network control centers), he said: In the attack on South Pars, crisis management was carried out in less than 10 minutes, and rapid response and technical measures, including switching power plant fuel from gas to liquid and intelligent load reduction, prevented the collapse of the national gas and electricity grid.

Allahdad added: This experience showed that dispatching centers are the beating heart of crisis management, and strengthening them is directly linked to preserving the integrity of the national grid.

Referring to the measures taken in "Zanjan Regional Electricity," he mentioned these actions as being in line with the macro-strategy of "greater resilience" and noted: The opening of new centers in Zanjan is a symbol of the practical implementation of this strategy, which aims for more precise control, decentralized management, and increasing the grid's reliability coefficient against potential future threats.

EF/MA