Iraq News Now

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity announced on Saturday that it had a signed an agreement with German conglomerate Siemens and the Egyptian Orascom Construction company to reconstruct and renovate the two largest gas power plants in Baiji.

The contract stipulates that the two companies will restore ten generating units and establish a power-transporting network in the two plants located, in Salahaddin province.

Luay al-Khateeb, Iraq’s Minister of Electricity, announced that the deal aims to “rehabilitate Iraq's electricity sector in general and in the liberated areas, in specific.”

“Rebuilding the two power plants will add an extra 1,690 megawatts to the current power production capacity," he added.

The project scheduled to be completed in 28 months with a total budget of $1.3 billion. The agreement was signed by all three parties during Iraq’s Energy Forum in Baghdad, which began on Saturday morning and including representatives from the Prime Minister's Office of Electricity and Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadhban.   

Currently, Baiji’s first power plant consists of four generating units producing a total of 676 megawatts of electricity, while the second one now has six generating units that provide a total of 1014 megawatts. 

Officials have estimated that Iraq will need roughly three years to enhance its gas production to the point that it is self-sustaining and no longer relies on imported Iranian gas to operate the nation's electric power plants.  

Iraq is still suffering from a chronic, severe shortage of power supply, despite successive governments reportedly spending close to $50 billion on the sector since 2003.

Summer months in the nation have proved to be the most trying times for various administrations in Baghdad since 2003 as they have struggled to provide consistent power in the sweltering heat to citizens whose increased summer use of air-conditioning and other appliances strains the grid’s capacity.   

Editing by John J. Catherine