Electricity in Iraq running at record highs: coalition official

[Barrett808]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Electricity in Iraq is flowing at record levels and Iraqis, who have endured a patchy service for decades, should almost have power on demand by the end of 2004, a senior US-led coalition official said.

"We are at or above an historic high in megawatt hours," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I am confident we are producing levels at a record level," he said, though the official noted that precise data were limited.

In January, Iraq's power grid produced 90,000 megawatt hours of power, up from mid-70,000 megawatt hours before the war, according to a statement by the Ministry of Electricity.

...

And power in the capital, Baghdad, remains as patchy as ever with blackouts a daily occurrence that has become almost routine, residents say.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040301/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_energy&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[Caution]

1. to produce at a "record" level

you must have actual "records" which he "noted" were limited. This might or might not be accurate, but if I'm an Iraqi I'm a little bit more concerned about the fact that the people who blew up the power facilities in the first place are now a hostile occupying force.

[Florida_Geek]

2. How much of that is going to the US Army nt

[Tempest]

3. Iraqi blogger disputes this

The electrical situation is almost stable at around 10 hours of electricity a day at this point. Everything is a little bit frightening right now and I can't help but wish we could remain without electricity during the day and have it as soon as it gets dark.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

In one of her earlier posts, she stated the electricity was on 24/7 before the war.

[Greyskye]

4. This is confirmed by a co-worker with family in Bagdad

A Iraqi co-worker of mine with family in Bagdad said pretty much the exact same thing to me last week.

BTW - he voted for Bush last time around (he's been in the country for over 20 years) but plans on voting a Kerry ticket this time.

[Columbia]

5. The problem

Is that the almost all the produced electricity pre-war was diverted to power Baghdad 24/7. The rest of the country was shafted. For example, the city of An Nasiriyah received about 2 hours of electrcity a day despite the fact that the one of the largest power plants in the country is located there.

The power is now redistributed more evenly around the country, but even with power production at above pre-war levels, it'll take a lot more to get the entire country running 24/7. It'll get there, but it will take time.

[Tempest]

6. What is your source?

Where do you get your information?

[Columbia]

7. Me

I was involved with restoring infrastructure in Iraq when I was over there.

[daleo]

10. How do you know what was happening before you got there?

I don't mean that as a rhetorical question. I am curious how you can tell where the power had been routed a year before you got there.

[Columbia]

11. Iraqi power officials told us

At the power plants. Actually some of the power was even sold to neighboring countries while Iraqi civilians went with almost no electricity.

[daleo]

12. They might have told you what they thought you wanted to hear.

But there is no way of knowing, so I will leave it at that.

[Columbia]

13. You mean the truth?

[Columbia]

14. A supporting article

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/columnists/hiel/s_163126.html

"Nasiriyah is the site of Iraq's second-largest power plant, capable of generating electricity to five of the country's 18 provinces. Yet under Saddam, its residents had power for just three hours during the day; most of the electricity was wheeled to Baghdad or sold to Syria."

[daleo]

15. I read the article

It hardly seems unbiased, with a significant cheer leading for the occupation tone (for anyone else who might be reading, the title is 'Thank you to our friends from the USA'), but I will accept that power could have been diverted to Baghdad before the occupation, and that your sources Iraq could well have been speaking the truth.

[Columbia]

16. It is perhaps not as palpable to anti-war supporters

But it is an accurate reflection of sentiments in An Nasiriyah.

You are welcome to search for other articles as well. There was one in the LA Times a few months back that also cited the uneven power distribution.

[Robb]

8. Numbers don't add up

At the end of January, Syria and Turkey were supplying Iraq with 50 and 200 MW respectively, and in July there are plans for Iran, Kuwait and Jordan to export providing 100, 200 and 150 MW to Iraq.

Iraq's Interim electricity minister Aiham al-Samarrai was hoping capacity might reach 12,000 MW at the end of the 2004. Power production in Iraq totalled 3,452 MW in December 2003, compared to April's 4,400 MW (before the invasion).

...So they're "producing" almost 8 times what their total capacity projections were, 10 months ahead of schedule?

Who's doing the math, Arthur Anderson?!? :eyes:

[Columbia]

9. You've got your units of measurements a bit mixed up

MegaWatts (MW - one million watts of power) and MegaWatt Hours (MWh - one million watts of energy expended per hour) are two different animals.