Global Policy Forum

Ending chronic Iraqi power cuts is a top government priority, Electricity Minister Mohsen Shlash said, but solutions require political goodwill and public cooperation as well as technical expertise. "A special committee set up two weeks ago has begun its work and is studying Iraq's needs," Shlash told a press conference here. Iraqi officials are well aware that getting power back is one of the population's biggest concerns along with unemployment, patchy health provision and insecurity.

"We got Turkey to increase the flow of water in the Euphrates River and to boost exports of electricity," Shlash announced. The river's source is in Turkey, which has built a series of dams on its upper course to generate hydroelectric power and trap water for use in irrigation. With more water allowed to pass downstream, Iraqi officials hope to set up their own power plants like one in the northwestern city of Haditha.

"We have a generator ready in Haditha. When we get more water, production will increase," the minister said, acknowledging that the river's flow would still not be big enough year-round to permit non-stop generation at all plants. Iraqis have suffered worsening power cuts ever since the 1991 Gulf war as the impact of UN sanctions imposed for the previous year's invasion of Kuwait has taken its toll on production capacity.

On Saturday, deputy electricity minister Raad al-Haris said Turkey would increase exports of electricity to Iraq from 150 megawatts (MW) per day to 230, and that Iranian exports would grow from 90 to 150 starting next month. The combined increase of 140 MW represents the consumption of more than 100,000 Iraqi homes and businesses.

Shlash said Sunday: "We currently produce 3,700 MW per day but average demand of 4,750 increases to 8,250 during the summer" when Iraqis fight searing heat with fans and air conditioners. His ministry has now banded together with the oil and industry ministries to come up with some answers. Most of Iraq's electricity is generated by burning diesel fuel -- the country has the world's largest proven reserves of crude oil after Saudi Arabia.

Japan, which is on a historic military deployment to Iraq, said Friday it would give nearly 118 million dollars to build a power plant in the region where its troops are based. Tokyo is to fund construction of a 60-MW diesel power station in Samawa, the capital of Muthanna province, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said.

Shlash said while the government would do all it could to boost supply, the public had a crucial role to play in keeping demand down to a minimum. "The private sector can limit consumption and not use electricity at night when demand jumps," he said. The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority community, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has called on the faithful to save power as temperatures begin to soar. Haris said Saturday after a meeting with Sistani that he had "issued a clear fatwa (religious decree) that people should save electricity and not attack power infrastructure."

Sabotage has seriously hurt production. "Power lines have been the target of repeated attack and we are working on that with the ministry of defense and others, but we are also counting on citizens to identify saboteurs," Shlash said. According to a recent study by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), three quarters of Iraqi homes suffer from power cuts, in particular around Baghdad where the figure climbs to 92 percent of the area's 1.1 million households.

Nationwide, electricity is available for 8.8 hours per day according to estimates by the Washington-based Brookings Institution. In response, 29 percent of Iraqi households own or share a private generator, with the rate rising to 32 percent in the cities against 19 percent in the countryside.