INTERVIEW-Iraq electricity surpasses pre-war levels
Thu Jul 28, 2005
By Suleiman al-Khalidi
AMMAN, July 28 (Reuters) - Iraq's electricity supply has risen above pre-war levels to 5,350 megawatts (MW) despite sabotage, boosted by hydroelectric power and more imports from Iran, Syria and Turkey, the minister in charge said on Thursday.
"Now electricity has reached a record after we broke 5,350 megawatts a few days ago for the first time since the war," Electricity Minister Mohsen Shalash told Reuters.
Iraq's emergency moves had eased electricity shortage during summer when temperatures can rise above 50 degrees centigrade (122 Fahrenheit), Shalash said in an interview in Amman during a stopover on his way to Iraq.
The rise in power supply of over 1,000 megawatts has come from an extra 500 megawatts generated by hydroelectric power after Turkey increased water flows from the Euphrates River to Iraqi dams while imports from Iran, Turkey and Syria added at least 350 megawatts in July.
A decade before the U.S. led invasion in 2003 capacity had fluctuated between 3,000 to 4,400 megawatts at its peak.
Iraq's power grid, battered by attacks by insurgents and long neglect is still producing only half the electricity needed despite international efforts to rebuild it.
The forecast rise to 6,000 megawatts in August would come mainly from a doubling of imports from Iran to 200 megawatts and a similar jump in Turkey's exports to around 300 megawatts.
New deals signed earlier this month in Tehran will make Iran the country's leading supplier by next summer, Shalash said.
Top level talks were also going on with Kuwait to supply Iraq with excess capacity of up to 500 megawatts, Shalash added.
LONG TERM PROJECTS
Electricity purchases were, however, not sustainable in the long term with $300 million spent so far this year and the bill forecast to rise to $1 billion in 2006, he said.
Iraq's medium term plan was to implement $20 billion worth of electricity projects by 2010 to raise capacity to 18,000 megawatts solely through donor funding, Shalash said.
Iraq was in advanced talks with Japan on how to utilise the bulk of $3.5 billion of soft loans in electricity projects.
Iran was ready to give as much as $2-3 billion for power plants that its own firms can construct, Shalash added.
A recent visit to Germany had also won promises to access for the first time as much as $1 billion in soft loans by one of the major Western opponents of the U.S. led war, said Shalash.
The funds will finance several key projects such as degasification of flared liquefied natural gas for electricity.
Rehabilitation of major power plants of Mussayab, Nassiriya, Baiji and Baghdad's Dura would be completed by year end.
An extra 500 megawatts will come on stream later this year from a 10 unit gas turbine plant constructed near the city of Mussayab which was originally due for completion in June 2004.
The delay in constructing the plant explains how bureaucracy and high security costs have eaten a major chunk of $5.6 billion allocated by the U.S. for electricity projects, Shalash said.
"Instead of $5.6 billion we ended up with just about a $1 billion or even less in projects. The sums spent in the last two years could have been better spent and the results could have been better," Shalash said.
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