Iraq's Untold Story: Progress on the Power Front

From Azzaman.com, U.S. Engineers Execute Power Project in South:

U.S. engineers have executed a new power scheme in the southern city of Musayab that provides electricity for nearly 20,000 people.

The $4.9 million project is expected to boost the Musayab power plant, a major electricity generating center in southern Iraq.

Iraqi technicians were also involved in the implementation, the U.S. army in Iraq said in an email statement to the newspaper.

Local technicians, it said, designed the project, did the civil engineering and installed two transformers under U.S. engineers’ supervision.

Nearly 140 unskilled workers were also involved in the project whose implementation took about 10 months.

U.S. army engineering corps, the statement said, is currently implementing 435 power-related projects across the country.

The projects, it said, are financed from the $3.2 billion U.S. grant to rehabilitate the national grid.

“In the power sector, 82 projects at a cost of $660 million have been implemented so far,” said the statement written in Arabic.

“The total cost of projects under implementation amounts to $1.3 billion,” it said.

The statement said most of these projects are expected to be finished by the end of the year

And from PortAl Iraq, Nearly 50,000 homes receive increased electricity:

An electric plant in northeastern Ninewa is running again for the first time in several years. The newly-refurbished plant will produce enough electric power to serve approximately 49,720 Iraqi homes or businesses in the area and will add 55 megawatts to the national grid.

A local Iraqi firm, along with the Ministry of Electricity, installed five gas turbines under the original equipment manufacturer’s supervision. Management oversight was provided by the Project & Contracting Office’s (PCO) Electricity Sector and quality control was supplied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division (USACE, GRD).

The Ninewa plant, totaling approximately $3 million of Iraq Relief & Reconstruction Funds (IRRF) through the PCO Electricity Sector, also will receive an additional $1 million worth of spare parts. Work on the plant started in early August 2005 and ended one month later.

Returning the northeastern Ninewa plant to operational status required repairing gas lines and completely refurbishing five gas turbines, including blade replacements, realignment of the generator hookup and replacement of bearings.

The plant is part of Project Phoenix, an initiative which covers seven plants and 26 gas turbines and totals upwards of $85 million. Project Phoenix is expected to add approximately 700 megawatts of electric power to the national grid. Established in early 2005, Project Phoenix was designed to refurbish power assets such as plants and turbines...