Power Generation in Iraqi Kurdistan: Securing 22 Hours Supply

After the fall of Saddam Hussein regime, Iraqi Kurdistan has been left relatively untouched by the two successive invasions that ravaged country.

Albeit untouched, the international isolation and 30 years of limited investment, has left Iraqi Kurdistan struggling with aging infrastructure.

The Electricity distribution and generation sector was no exception. After the regime change up until 2007,  Iraqi Kurdistan had only 2 hours of electricity per day. The KRG quickly realized the need for rapid infrastructure upgrade and signed lucrative contracts with the private sector companies such as Mass Global.

With the support of the ministry of electricity Mass Global, skilfully invested and build new gas-powered plants and in 2013, 10 years after the regime change, Iraqi Kurdistan currently enjoys 22 hours a day electricity on average.

Azad Mustafa Hussain, Vice-Chairman of Mass Global Investment Company explains the situation, ” we first started operating in Erbil in 2007, back then the power supply was only 2 hours per day, by 2012 the electricity supply reached the limit of 24 hours during some days while it generally goes up to 22 hours a day most of the time. So we first started with Erbil, then moved to Sulaymaniyah and  then began our operation in Duhok. The government’s role was notable, and especially the role of the prime minister who encouraged us to work towards these projects. We met great success with the power-generating project noting that the government support was notable in relation to security and protection of the project. We also want to give our thanks to the Ministry of Electricity for its help since there are many issues that arise after generating the power. Like the transportation (distribution) issue, knowing that it is not easy to generate and then distribute 2,250 megawatts, and in the beginning of the project we used to face lots of problems, but now things got better and we have few problems to deal with. The Ministry of electricity provides any kind of service we might need, whether technical or operational.”

The group currently operates 3 power plants, with generate over 2,250 megawatts.

“We have an active power plant in Erbil which generates 1,000 megawatts, we also have another power plant in Sulaymaniyah which also generates another 1,000 megawatts and another power plant in Duhok which generates 500 megawatts of power. We are also working to develop our project in Erbil since we already signed a contract with Enka company to benefit from the thermal energy generated by the turbines, and then transform it into another 500 megawatts without using any fuel. This will enable our power plant in Erbil to generate 1,500 megawatts. Also hopefully in March 2013, we will sign a contract for a similar project of combined cycle to develop the power plant in Sulaymaniyah adding another 500 megawatts to the original 1,000 megawatts generated by that plant.” Concludes Hussain.