Friday, October 06, 2006
U.S., Iraq sign new power project
Reconstruction
The Iraqi and U.S. governments signed a Memorandum of Agreement on Sept. 25, to construct 400 kV overhead lines from Tameen Province to Baghdad Province. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) the $49 million project will vastly improve Iraq's national grid and its stability, which the Minister of Electricity has identified as his top transmission priority.
The Memorandum was signed by Dr. Karim Hasan, Iraqi Minister of Electricity, and MG William H. McCoy, Commander of USACE's Gulf Region Division (GRD). As of Sept. 23, the national daily average for power was 12 hours with six in Baghdad. The goal of the project, according to USACE, is to reduce the risk of blackouts as well as improve redundancy and reliability. The estimated completion date for the project is October 2008.
