TEHRAN, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- A thermal power plant, with a generation capacity of 2.8 gigawatts (GW), was officially inaugurated in Pakdasht, a city near Tehran, Tehran Times daily reported Thursday.
The plant, the construction of which started in 2003, cost 270 million euros (about 353 million U.S. dollars) plus 5 trillion rials (about 400 million dollars), said the report.
The facility, launched on Tuesday, is the largest thermal power plant in the Middle East and increases Iran's national electricity generation capacity by 6 percent, according to Tehran Times.
Presently, Iran's power generation capacity stands at 67 GW and it is projected to reach 70 GW by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (till March 20, 2013).
Sixteen new power stations, with a total capacity of 2.6 GW, have come on stream in the current Iranian calendar year.
According to the daily, Iran currently provides electricity to Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It also plans to connect the national power grid to Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon, and India in the future.