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Iraq’s broken electricity sector is planning a long-awaited overhaul to both meet US pressure to halt Iranian power imports and head off summertime protests over chronic cuts.
With a freshman at the helm. the electricity ministry is exploring options including revamping stations and lines to cut waste. importing power. and improving bill collection to boost revenues.
Baghdad hopes it will generate enough megawatts to feed demand by summer. when cuts can leave millions powerless for up to 20 hours per day.
But it also has an earlier deadline to meet.
When Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in November over the latter’s nuclear programme. it granted Iraq a 45-day waiver to produce a roadmap to stop using Iranian electricity and gas.
Iraq pipes in up to 28 million cubic metres of Iranian gas daily to feed its stations. and also directly imports up to 1.300 megawatts of Iranian-produced electricity.
Now. Baghdad’s power ministry has outlined a plan to wean off Iranian electricity within 18 months and resolve some decade-old problems. said spokesman Musab al-Mudarris.
“In the coming two weeks. we will submit to the Americans a five-year plan including yearly assessments.“ he told AFP.
If the US approves. it may extend the waiver for “a year or two“.
“But there are no quick fixes.“ Mudarris insisted.
Iraq sits on 153 billion barrels of proven crude reserves. but it needs higher quality fuel and gas for power turbines.
Mudarris admitted that while Iraq could do without Iran’s electricity. it needed Iranian gas until it could extract its own or capture flares from oil drilling.
Using its own fuel plus Iranian gas. Iraq can produce a total of around 16.000 megawatts of electricity.
That is far below demand. which hovers around 24.000 MW but can jump to 30.000 in summer. when temperatures reach a sizzling 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
Much of the shortfall is technical: when Iraq transmits power. 30 to 50 percent gets lost to poor infrastructure. according to the Iraq Energy Institute (IEI).
Some of that is age. but pipelines and stations were also attacked by the Islamic State group before Iraq beat it back last year.
Rehabilitation is a key element of the ministry’s plan.
