Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami said on Sunday that the electricity produced at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) has enabled Iran to reduce its consumption of oil for power generation purposes by 90 million barrels.
Eslami made the announcement in a meeting with members of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
Authorities announced in late August 2022 that BNPP’s output had reached 50 billion kw/h. That means that the plant has been working at a capacity of 1.14 gigawatts (GW) per hour over the past year which is near a full capacity of 1.024 GW and above its nominal capacity of 0.915 GW.
It comes despite the fact that the plant has been facing some technical difficulties because of foreign sanctions on Iran. AEOI officials have said over the past year that the plant is increasingly relying on Iranian technicians and engineers for many overhaul programs.
Eslami said that Iran seeks to increase its nuclear power generation capacity to 20 GW with plans to launch new nuclear plants, including phases 2 and 3 of the Bushehr facility.
He said new companies have been set up and land plots have been acquired in five provinces with access to seas or major rivers to expand Iran’s nuclear power sector.
Legislations adopted by the Iranian parliament requires the AEOI to increase Iran’s nuclear electricity generation capacity to respond to growing demand in the country that has already passed peaks of 73 GW this summer
