Problematic Power Grid Keeps Iraqis In The Dark

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
September 19, 2007
Pg. 8
Shortage Of Funds, Fuel Strain System In Summer Heat
By Thomas Frank, USA Today
BAGHDAD — Mohammed Ismail spotted trouble earlier this year inside one of Iraq's biggest power plants: Soot was building up inside a generator.
Ismail, a contractor who manages a repair project at Baghdad's Dora power plant, says he urged Iraqi officials to shut the generator and clean it. But the Ministry of Electricity refused, he said, because it didn't want to turn off a generator that supplies enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes.
The generator caught fire in April and was closed for repairs that took nearly four months, becoming yet another example of the woes plaguing Iraq's electric grid. Despite nearly $4.7 billion spent by U.S. taxpayers since 2003 on fixing the system, insufficient maintenance, sabotage and other problems mean that residents of Baghdad get an average of just eight hours of power per day.
Aziz Sultan, a spokesman for the Electricity Ministry, said he had no knowledge of the incident Ismail described at the Dora plant.
Iraq's electricity situation is "not hopeless," Ismail said. "But it'll take a long time to be fixed."
The Iraqi government may have to pay for that work on its own. The money Congress set aside to repair Iraq's electricity sector is running out and will be spent by next summer, said Col. Mike Moon, director of electrical sector development for the Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq. Building a network that can supply power to all 27.5 million Iraqis will "take years, maybe decades," Moon said.
"It was never the goal of the United States to fix the system 100%," he said. "We started the program."
Iraq's electric grid meets only about half of the demand, Electricity Minister Karim Wahid said this month. The average amount of power generated has increased only slightly since before the war. Meanwhile, demand has nearly doubled since 2004 as the economy has grown and Iraqis have bought new appliances.
The shortage remains a major political issue, fueling the dissatisfaction many Iraqis feel with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government. Many use generators to power air-conditioning systems as the late-summer heat continues. (The forecast high today in Baghdad is 106 degrees.)
In August, large areas of the capital lacked running water for a week because the strained electricity system could not handle water purification or pumping stations.
"No one in the government cares about us and what we suffer from," said Salim Jouad, 38. He spends $30 a month on gasoline to run his generator for three hours during the day and three hours each night.
Militias and insurgents "get mass support because people are angry about the living conditions," said Joost Hiltermann of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which works to prevent conflict.
Several factors cause the power shortfall. Fuel shortages idle power-plant generators. Attacks knock out electricity lines. Plants run at partial capacity because they are in disrepair or they receive low-quality fuel or the wrong type of fuel. Curfews and dangerous conditions keep power-plant employees away from work.
The incident at Dora was emblematic of another problem, Ismail said. Iraqi officials "want the plants to run until they break down. They don't have enough power to shut the units down and fix them," he said.
The Electricity Ministry says it needs $27 billion and eight years to build a reliable national power system. The ministry requested $2 billion for this year, but al-Maliki's government provided only $1.4 billion in funding, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Contributing: Ali Abbas and Zaid Sabah
 
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