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Image used for illustrative purpose. Employees inspect the equipment at an electric power transformation substation in Handan, Hebei province April 8, 2013. China's power generation rose 2.1 percent from a year earlier in March, the National Statistical Bureau showed on Monday. Picture taken April 8, 2013. REUTERS/China Daily
Iraq and Jordan are pushing ahead with a project to connect their power networks to tackle persistent electricity supply shortages in Iraq and it will be completed at the end of 2023, an Iraqi official was reported on Friday as saying.
US-based electrical equipment company GE is executing the project which is part of an ambitious plan by Baghdad to rehabilitate its war-damaged energy sector and slash reliance on imported power supplies, mainly from neighboring Iran.
“This project is still in its initial stage…General Electric and an Iraqi company are carrying out the project and we expect it to be completed at the end of 2023,” said Imad Al-Dulaimi, Mayor of Rutba, a key city in Iraq’s largest Governorate of Alanbar.
Dulaimi told the official Iraqi news agency that the project would supply Iraq with nearly 400 megawatts of electricity in the first phase.
Iraq, which controls the world’s 5th largest recoverable oil deposits, will also get power supplies from its Gulf neighbors through a similar network connection project. It has also signed contracts with Total of France and other foreign firms to build solar power plants.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
