The Minister of Electricity, Ziad Ali Fadel, stated on Tuesday that the provision of 24-hour electricity is feasible if the Prime Minister can implement his plan of adding 4,000 megawatts every year, subject to the availability of necessary financing. He also mentioned the existence of a comprehensive strategy to conserve energy by using smart meters.
The Minister of Electricity made a statement saying that if the production capacity of electricity reaches 45 thousand megawatts and the actual production capacity reaches 24 thousand megawatts, citizens will enjoy 24-hour electricity. The government program plan involves the establishment of additional stations within a time limit of 4 years. If the program is implemented successfully and full funding is achieved for the next four years, the Minister confirmed that citizens will enjoy national electricity for 24 hours.
Fadel stated that efforts are underway to minimize the gap between the number of hours of power supply in one year and the next, resulting in an increase in the hours of supply for citizens every year. Although the citizens will experience an improvement from last summer, the supply will not reach 24 hours. However, there is a program in place aimed at generating an additional 11-13 thousand megawatts of power, which will enable a reduction in the gap. Fadel also mentioned the possibility of achieving 24-hour power supply, depending on the success of the program.
Our goal is to generate an additional 11,000 megawatts over the next 3-4 years. To achieve this, we are gradually adding 4,000 megawatts annually. However, our focus is not only on increasing production, but also on optimizing its usage. It’s important to limit energy loads and reduce waste. Simply increasing electricity production without taking these measures will not yield any benefits. Therefore, we are working to address network problems, energy rationalization, and consumption issues.
He said, “The entire world is discussing renewable energy, and since I took over the ministry, I have not come across any signed contract for creating solar energy. However, during this period, we have signed three contracts to generate 2,400 megawatts of electricity. I can confirm that not a single megawatt of clean energy has been produced in Iraq to date. Nevertheless, we currently have three clean energy projects in the pipeline to produce electricity.”
He concluded by saying: “All neighboring countries are establishing gas stations according to the type of fuel available to them. We are now going towards establishing 3 stations with a capacity of 700 megawatts, operating on the available types of fuel. We own crude oil, but whoever talks about its harm to the environment should know that We have pollution treatment units, and we can put them in production units, so we have included, during the year 2023, a plan to establish 3 thermal stations, based on Iraqi fuel, the first is the North station, the Shinafiya station in Diwaniyah, and the Anbar thermal station, which is now under contract.”
