Upper Gotvand is a 1,016 MW hydro power station in Khuzestan, Iran. It is operated by Iran Water and Power Resources Development Company. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 1.0 million homes (estimated). It ranks #33 of 177 Iran power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2012, it is around 14 years old — relatively modern. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 3.3% of Iran's electricity; the national grid averages 660 gCO₂/kWh (5.7% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1061133.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000602179); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 1,016 MW, Upper Gotvand is well above the median hydro plant in Iran (130 MW). Technically it is described as conventional storage. Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Iran Water and Power Resources Development Company.
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a hot semi-arid steppe climate (Köppen BSh) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 32.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 78% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 21/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a benign, low-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C1 — Very low), with dust abrasion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #4 largest hydro power plant of 19 in Iran by capacity.
Iran has 19 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 10,818 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 32.2674, 48.9365 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Upper Gotvand is a 1,016 MW source-record hydro power plant in Khuzestan, Iran, commissioned in 2012.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 1,017,161 homes (estimated).
Upper Gotvand is operated by Iran Water and Power Resources Development Company.
