Electricity Industry   History   The very first light bulb in Iran was turned on in 1900 - some 21 years after the year 1879 when it was invented by Thomas Edison. At that time the first power generator, a 12 hp and 110 volt, was installed in Imam Reza's shrine in Mashad. Shortly after that a benevolent merchant named Haj Amino Zarb installed a 400 kW second generator on Cheragh Bargh Ave, in Tehran. Tehran Bargh Institute, a power plant with a generating capacity of 6,000 kW, being commissioned in Tehran in 1905, was later renamed to "Central Power Organization". In 1949 an 8,000 kW plant was commissioned. Some 95% of the electricity power was generated by the Ministry of Power's affiliated units in the year 2000, the rest by the private sector. Presently, there are mainly two kinds of power plants in Iran: hydraulic and thermal power plants. The first consumes water, the latter fossil fuel. There is also a wind-generated electricity and solar-generated electricity. Also a nuclear power plant was built before the Revolution in Bushehr   Facts about power industry: " The Installed power production capacity in Iran is 32.5 million kW. " The actual annual production is 121.4 million kW/h. " Population: Over 66 million, compared to the top 40 countries Iran is ranked 19th in the installed power production capacity in 2000. Back in 1994 it used to rank 21st. Per capita load of the already installed plants available in the country in March 2001 exceeded 512 watt, indicating 2.4% increase compared to a year earlier. This figure in March 2001 was 1906 kW/h indicative of 6.5% growth compared to its previous year.     List of power plants: 1- Hydraulic Power Plants: Construction of water dams, which is considered a traditional 2- way of accumulating water, dates back to Sassanides era. The first dam built to generate power was Dezful Dam in Khuzistan damming the Dez River. Karaj, Sefid-rood, Zayandeh-Rood and recently Karkheh and Massjed-Soleyman dams added to the nation's hydraulic power capacity. Some 40 power generating units on 13 existing dams were generating electricity with a capacity of 2,000 megawatt in March 2001. Due to excessive costs dam construction projects are exclusively carried out by the government. 3- Thermal power plants: Due to the advantages of such plants over the hydraulic ones, they are more plausible. These advantages include: 3-a. Free from existing bounds related to dam-building and hydraulic power plants such as the need for enormous investments. 3-b. No need for special ecological conditions and standard rivers 3-c. Comparatively much lower costs than the hydraulic ones.     In Iran the greatest part of electric energy is produced by Thermal power plants. There are three types of Thermal plants: Steam, diesel and gas-combined cycle plants. A. Steam: A total of 67 steam plants with an approximate nominal capacity of 13,750 megawatts were at work in March 2001 B. Gas-combined cycle plants: Some 172 gas-combined cycle plants with an approximate nominal capacity of 10,000 megawatts were in operation in March 2001 C. Diesel: Diesel plants produced 574 megawatt in the Iranian year ending March 2001 Miscellaneous power plants: There is also a wind-generated electricity which being very economical is produced in Manjil and Roodbar. And there are smaller hydraulic plants, which are run under other organizations: A. The wind-operated plants, which were installed and commissioned and now being supervised by Iran's Nuclear Energy Organization (NEO), include one 500 kW, eight 550 kW and fifteen 300 kW units operating in the city of Manjil. They also include one 500 kW and three 550 kW units operating in Roodbar adjacent to Manjil, not very far form Rasht, center of Gilan Province. Total electric energy generated by such plants exceeded 30 million kW/h during the same year. B. Then there are the small hydraulic plants built and operated by Construction Jihad. Total nominal power capacity of power plants in Iran was 26,373 megawatt in March 2001, 52% of which belonged to steam plants, 38% to gas-combined cycle power plants, 7.6% to hydraulic plants and the remainder to diesel plants