TEHRAN — Mohsen Shaterzadeh, an official of MAPNA International Company said on Monday that Iran would construct a combined cycle power plant at the overall cost of 170 million euros in Armenia within next 3 years.

Initially, several gas units will be added to the current steam units. The Harazdan Power Plant was constructed by Russia nine years ago with 80 percent physical progress. However, it remained incomplete due to the internal situation of Russia after the collapse of the USSR and separation of Armenian, he stated.

Shaterzadeh added that in his recent visit to Iran, the Armenian energy minister held negotiations with the managing director of MAPNA Co. as well as the Iranian energy minister of the time, and called for completing Harazdan by the Iranian company. Finally, the cooperation agreement was signed between MAPNA and the Armenian part, he further said.

According to the agreement, the Iranian expertise team was dispatched to Armenia last winter for conducting the primary estimations; they set the figure at 9 million euro for completing the fifth unit of Harazdan Steam Power Plant, he explained.

He also maintained, “The production capacity of Harazdan power plant is 325 MW and the whole equipment were provided by Russia.” MAPNA has allocated credit facility of nearly $2 million to the Armenian part to conduct the primary studies.

The construction project of the combined cycle power plant comprises three phases, he said. “In the first phase, the standing steam power plant is to be completed by 2007 based on the projections made. Since the majority of the equipment has been provided by Russia, we held discussions with an Armenia-based Russian engineering company whose experts will soon pay a visit to Iran to finalize the cooperation agreement.” Therefore, the steam power plant will be jointly completed by the Iranian and Russian engineers, he added.

In the second phase of the project, a gas power plant will be set up by the Iranian engineers and the local Armenian workers. In this phase, the Iranian equipment will be used, he noted. He added, “In the third phase of the construction, the Iranian and Russian engineers will have a joint cooperation.”

According to Shaterzadeh, Armenia has held negotiations with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to receive a loan and the bank has given a positive go-ahead on approving it.        

منبع: prauda