Iran, South Korea sign MoUs in field of power industry

ISNA - Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power in Iran (Tavanir) and Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) signed two memoranda of understanding in field of reducing greenhouse gas and building energy storage system (ESS) in Tehran.

According to the MoUs, KEPCO will help Iran by running its clean development mechanism (CDM) program.

The CDM, defined in the Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows a country to run an emission-reduction or emission-limitation project in developing countries to earn saleable certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one metric ton of CO2. These CERs can be trade and sold, and used by the country to meet a part of its emission reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol.

Under the latest deal, Kepco will run a CDM program in Iran to help the country collect and recycle sulfur hexafluoride gas (SF6) in power transmission and distribution facilities. SF6, used by utilities for insulation and current interruption in electric transmission and distribution equipment, is an extremely potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential of 23,900 times that of carbon dioxide, and is very persistent in the atmosphere with a lifetime of 3,200 years.

The recent deal in Iran will allow Korea to reduce up to 700,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases over the next 10 years in Iran under the CDM program which would translate into CER earnings of around 10 billion won ($8.77 million). Kepco’s SF6 reducing facility can recover at least 97 percent of SF6 gas which is released into the air, which, in turn, would be recycled to refined gas. It has registered its SF6 gas emission reduction CDM program with the United Nations as one of CDM programs since 2011.