Iraq opens bidding for new power plants

• 13 years ago (2010-12-20)
• Junior Isles

Middle East 310

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The Iraqi electricity ministry has announced it is inviting bids for the construction of four power plants to boost its power generation capacity by 2750 MW.

The bids will be for a 1250 MW plant near the southern port city of Basra, and three 500 MW plants in the cities of Samawa, Diwaniya and Amarah, the ministry said.

The four plants should be built within 18 months according to Sami al-Araji, head of the country’s National Investment Commission.

Iraq, has the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves but is struggling to raise power output, which was around 8000 MW this April. This was just more than half of average domestic demand of 14 000 MW, according to government figures. Iraqis currently receive power from the national grid for an average of about one in every five hours.

Former Electricity Minister Karim Wahid resigned in June amid violent street protests triggered by severe seasonal summer power shortages. Wahid said at the time that his efforts to overcome the problem had been thwarted by a lack of funding and fuel.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called in June for patience and said it would take two years for power plants being built by General Electric Co. and Siemens AG to come online and help resolve power shortages.

The finance ministry said in June that it would issue bonds to pay for contracts signed in 2008 with GE and Siemens to add almost 9000 MW of capacity.