Electricity
USAID’s goals include the emergency repair or rehabilitation of power generation
facilities and electrical grids. Teams of engineers from the Ministry of
Electricity, USAID, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been working
since May of 2003 to restore capacity to Iraq’s power system.
Highlights This Week:
Operating unit at a USAID power plant project in
central Iraq |
- USAID's project to improve electrical
generation at a major thermal
power plant in Babil Governorate is
about 30% complete and showing
steady progress. This plant has four
units which each have a nameplate
rating of about 320 MW for a total
of 1,280 MW. The plant was built
in the early 1980s and was generating
about 435 MW daily when
USAID began working at the plant
in spring 2004.
- USAID's is working with Ministry
of Electricity (ME) plant managers
to identify components of the plant for rehabilitation and provide technical
and management assistance to ME maintenance forces for the rehabilitation.
This technical assistance includes providing replacement parts and
equipment and supplying specialty technical services for the selected upgrades,
which include repairs to boiler forced draft fans, air compressor rebuilds,
turbine control system repairs, intake silt removal, and water treatment
plant rebuilding. This is a different model from projects where USAID
contractors perform the majority of maintenance work and it has proved to be
very successful. By summer 2004, USAID and the ME increased average
daily plant production by 255 MW. This exceeded expectations of adding
240 MW.
Major Accomplishments to Date:
- By October, 2003, rehabilitated
electric power capacity
to produce peak capacity
greater than the prewar
level of 4,400 MW. Now
producing daily peaks in
excess of 5,000 MW. Hit
5,365 MW on August 18,
2004.
- In summer 2004, after
months of power reduction
for unit maintenance, generation
began steadily increasing.
- Repairing thermal units,
replacing turbines, rehabilitating
the power distribution
network, and installing and
restoring generators.
- USAID has added 340
MW of capacity through
maintenance and rehabilitation
work, and also repaired
a 400 KV transmission line.
- USAID and the Ministry of
Electricity are working with
partners to add a total of
more than 2,000 MW to the
national grid by December
2005 through maintenance,
rehabilitation, and new generation
projects.
- Most recently, USAID has
initiated a project to rehabilitate
13 existing substations
and construct 24 new substations
in Baghdad. These
37 substations will improve
the distribution and reliability
of electricity for more than
two million Baghdad residents.
- USAID has also begun an
operations and maintenance
program to improve the
output and reliability of 114
power plant units at 19 thermal
and combustion gas
turbine generation sites
throughout Iraq.
More Information:
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