"The construction of the third Armenia-Iran power line will be complete by 2018," Head of Niroo (Power) Research Institute of Iran (NRI) Mohammad Sadeq Qazizadeh announced today.
The official reiterated that the third power transmission line will allow Armenia and Iran to increase the amount of their swap deal of gas for electricity.
In August 2015, Yerevan and Tehran signed an agreement on the construction of the third power transmission line between the two countries. The cost of the project is about $120 million.
The gas pipeline between Armenia and Iran was commissioned in 2007. In return for Iranian gas Armenia ships electricity to Iran - 3 kWh for one cubic meters of gas.
In 2014, Armenia received 383 million cubic meters of Iranian gas at $189 for 1,000 cubic meters. The Iranian gas is not sold to households or enterprises - it is converted into electricity by the Yerevan thermal power plant and much of it is shipped back to Iran.