He added, “Yet it still is in need of more sources and contracts to provide further electricity supply, which has become the engine of public and economic life.”
As he received a delegation representing a number of Korean companies in Baghdad, Maliki said that “Iraq is looking up to the successful experiment of Korea, which was able to transform itself from a wrecked country after the Korean war to one of the most important economic and commercial industrialized countries in the world.”
However, the US Energy Information Administration, a body providing statistics and economic analysis, mentioned in a detailed report about the electricity situation in Iraq that “for most of the postwar period from 2003-2012, Iraq has struggled to meet its power needs.”
The recent report noted that “daily outages lasting 16 hours per day have not been uncommon, even though $45 billion was spent on this sector.” The report ruled out the possibility of providing 24-hour electricity as promised by the prime minister and the minister of electricity.
According to the report, Iraq plans to spend $27 billion on other projects, with about half of the money to be spent on upgrading the transmission and distribution systems.
“In 2008, Iraq purchased 74 tribunes, for a total of 10 gigawatts, yet no progress in installation was made until recently because of budgetary, contracting and political difficulties.”
Omar al-Shaher is a contributor to Al-Monitor’s Iraq Pulse. His writing has appeared in a wide range of publications including France’s LeMonde, the Iraqi Alesbuyia magazine, Egypt’s Al-Ahaly and the Elaph website.
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