London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Deputy head of Iran Power Development Company (IPDC) announced yesterday that talks with Saudi Arabia and Malaysia on the establishment of two power plants in Fars and Zanjan provinces are underway.

The power plants will be built on the build-own-operate (BOO) or build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, terming it a novel strategy in the country’s energy sector, Mostafa Ali-Rabbani told the Mehr News Agency

The first private BOT power station was 954MW South Isfahan, he recalled, calling similar projects economical.

The official predicted a great presence of foreign and domestic private organizations in the projects in near future in line with enforcement of the Article 44 of the Constitution.

Referring to the facilities and guarantees that the Ministry of Energy gives to the investors, the deputy head of IPDC announced Iran did not witness such supports in the past five years.

Within the first four months of the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2007), 10 power stations became operational with a 1,592MW capacity