Iraq has approved a plan to build new power plants with a generation capacity of more than 10,000 megawatts (MW), an official has said.

The projects are based in the capital Baghdad, the Southern port of Basra and the central Najaf province, the Electricity Ministry’s spokesman Ahmed Mousa said in weekend comments.

“We have already obtained approval for other power projects in Kirkuk and Faw…all these new plants will provide Iraq with more than 10 gigawatts (GW) in new power supplies,” he said.

“These projects will rely totally on fuel produced in Iraq…they are part of a new strategy to allow Iraq to be self-sufficient in electricity…the plan also includes the construction of more solar power plants and waste-to-energy projects,” he added.

Iraq is suffering from a large power supply gap due to a sharp decline in gas imports from Iran, which itself is suffering from slow production growth and high domestic demand.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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