Electricity completes summer preparations: we are waiting for the stations to be filled with fuel

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[size=52]Electricity completes summer preparations: we are waiting for the stations to be filled with fuel[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Electricity reported that more than half of the amounts allocated to it for years went to the salaries of its employees, and it talked about spending about 13 billion dollars on importing Iranian gas, confirming the completion of preparations for the summer, but it pledged the generation of 25 thousand megawatts by providing the fuel plan.[/size]
[size=45]The ministry's spokesman, Ahmed Musa, said, "The electricity supply during the past three months is integrated for all Iraqi governorates, except for some problems that arise technically and are being addressed."[/size]
[size=45]Moussa added, "Many factors helped us in this preparation, including the moderation of the temperature, and the efforts of the staff of the Ministry of Electricity."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "the sums spent on the Ministry of Electricity since 2003 include operational and investment budgets, and their total amounted to $80 billion, more than $43 billion of these amounts went to employee salaries."[/size]
[size=45]Moussa indicated that "approximately 12 billion and 800 million dollars were spent to purchase gas from the Iranian side in order to operate the stations," explaining that "11 billion dollars was lost by the Ministry of Electricity in the provinces that were occupied by the terrorist organization ISIS, and it was destroyed and we returned a large part of it."[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "The volume of production in 2003 was 3,500 megawatts, while production in the current summer will reach between 24 to 25 thousand megawatts," and estimated this increase at "six to 7 times," stressing that "any department that has not Its infrastructure is rising at these rates.”[/size]
[size=45]Moussa stated, "The Financial Supervision Bureau ranked the Ministry of Electricity in the fifth rank of ministries that were taken from public budgets."[/size]
[size=45]He noted, "Since the end of 2021, the ministry has been preparing early to keep pace with the summer plan, and we have completed the periodic maintenance of the production stations," noting that "these stations need periodic and emergency maintenance, the provision of equipment and support for transmission lines, and the introduction of broken lines since 2013, including the West Baghdad-Haditha line. The western Baghdad-Baiji line, the Rumaila-Nasiriya line, the Khor Al-Zubayr-Rumaila line, south Baghdad-Baquba, and the southern Baghdad-Wasit line.[/size]
[size=45]Moussa talked about “dozens of other lines that entered the work in order to achieve continuity of the electricity network, with great efforts to change the capacities of the transformers, remove bottlenecks, create feeders, and set up mobile stations in some load centers to help increase processing hours.”[/size]
[size=45]He finds, "These efforts to reflect positively on the processing hours need two very important things, the first is money, and the Council of Ministers has allocated 500 billion dinars in the absence of a budget to complete the necessary issues and it has been distributed to companies affiliated with the ministry, and we are currently working to accomplish what we started with to be We are ready at the end of this month.”[/size]
[size=45]Moussa added, "The second thing that the ministry needs is the fuel that operates the stations, and we have high coordination with the Ministry of Oil," explaining that "the issue of rehabilitating the national gas fields is the responsibility of the Ministry of Oil as the sectoral authority."[/size]
[size=45]He went on to say, "The lack of national gas makes us go to import gas from Iran at an amount of 4 billion dollars annually," noting that "our stations operate on five types of fuel, but when they operate on gas, they give full power."[/size]
[size=45]Musa continues, "Before installing these stations, we sent official letters to the Ministry of Oil and asked them about the possibility of supplying them with gas, and the answer came that Iraq in 2013 will have a complete fuel and gas plan once the stations that have been installed are completed, and until today we have not obtained operating gas."[/size]
[size=45]He goes on, "The ministry was then forced to import gas from Iran," adding that "we visited Tehran two weeks ago and asked the officials there about the reason for the fluctuation in gas supplies. The answer was that the Iranian side has dues to Iraq for supplying it with gas throughout 2020, amounting to 1.692 billion. Million dollars".[/size]
[size=45]Moussa added, "The Iranian side sent a clear message that Iraq, if it does not pay the gas dues on the 31st of this month, will cut off gas supplies from us, and we depend on this gas to operate 8,000 megawatts."[/size]
[size=45]He continues, "Our stations are operating at full production capacity and all kinds of maintenance and support have been carried out on them, but the problem is the lack of fuel."[/size]
[size=45]Moussa added, "Coordination is very high with the Ministry of Oil despite all the challenges, and we are determined to present a better summer than previous years."[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the deputy head of the Parliamentary Energy Committee, inside Radi, said that "the efforts of the Ministry of Electricity for the current summer are clear, as it has completed many procedures, including the maintenance of generators."[/size]
[size=45]Radi added, "Iraq depends to a large extent on Iranian gas in operating its stations, and there is continuous coordination in order to keep supplies flowing."[/size]
[size=45]And he pledges, "the stability of the electricity situation by a number of measures, the most important of which is the political situation and the allocation of funds that the ministry needs."[/size]
[size=45]For years, the electrical system has witnessed a clear deterioration, which has led to a decrease in processing hours and the emergence of continuous demonstrations to demand its improvement, especially during the summer months.[/size]
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