Electricity problem to be over by 2011 – minister

MUTHANNA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi Minister of Electricity Kareem Waheed on Monday said the problem of electricity will be over once and for all by the year 2011, referring to contracts signed by his ministry recently to build power stations at combined capacity of 10,200 megawatt. “The country’s actual power needs are 12,000 megawatt and by 2011 there will be an energy surplus,” Waheed told IraqiNews.com on the sidelines of ceremonies to inaugurate the Samawa power station at a capacity of 60 mw in the presence of in the presence of Japanese State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Seiko Hashimoto, the deputy commander of the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) and Muthanna province officials on Monday. Samawa, the capital city of Muthanna, lies 280 km south of Baghdad. The Electricity Ministry had signed last Monday a contract to import power stations from the U.S. giant General Electric at a capacity of 7,000 megawatt and a cost of $3 billion in a bid to enhance Iraq ‘s power grid. Yesterday the ministry signed another contract with Siemens to build more stations at a capacity of 3,300 megawatt. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on the two companies to speed up these new power stations. Iraq ‘s electric energy production has reached 9,000 megawatt before it invaded Kuwait in the summer of 1990s. There were plans to double it to 18,000 megawatt in 2000. The wars waged by the former regime and the international blockade imposed on the country caused an acute decline in the production of electricity and aggravation of the national network to retreat to 5,000 megawatt before April 9, 2003 . AmR (S)/SR 1