New pylons link up national grid with Iran

 

By Saad Abduljabbar

 

Azzaman, 2004-09-27

 

Iran has begun exporting power to the country via a new network of pylons linking the two countries, according to a senior Electricity Ministry official.

 

“Power from Iran has started flowing to the Province of Diyala,” Abdulatif Ibrahim, a director-general at the ministry, said.

 

The move indicates that the countries are determined to expand economic cooperation despite frosty political ties.

 

Ayham Samaraai, the electricity minister, has praised the Iranian move, the first of Iraq’s six neighboring countries to connect its national grid with Iraq’s ailing electricity network.

 

“Iran is serious in its attempts to supply Iraq with electricity although it has so far received nothing of the money allocated for the project,” the minister said.

 

Iran has extended a 60-kilomter long power line from its major Serbeel power station to the Iraqi power generating plant at Himrin in the north.

 

It took the Iranians four months to construct the pylons, towers and lines necessary for the project.

 

The linkup with Iranian national grid is good news for the border province of Diyala which has been suffering from chronic power outages.

 

The project is supposed to make available an additional 1,000 megawatts to the national grid, according to Ibrahim, the director-general.

 

Under a deal the power ministries of the countries have signed Iraq will pay $47 million a year to Iran in return for its electricity.

 

The flowing of Iranian electricity to Iraq comes amid reports that a similar project to import power from Kuwait has collapsed.

 

Samaraai, the minister, has said Iraq is now seeking help from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain which have agreed to sell it their surplus of electrical power.

 

But the line to carry power from the Gulf will have to pass through Saudi Arabia instead of Kuwait and will take a long time to be completed, the minister said.

 

Samaraai did not explain why the extension of the line through Kuwaiti territory is no longer possible, despite its economic feasibility.

 

The electricity imports from Iran are expected to boost total national power output in the country whose current needs are estimated at more than 7,500 megawatts.

 

The ministry says it has boosted the national grid nearly to 5,000 megawatts recently.

 

Maximum the rickety national grid could produce when former leader Saddam Hussein was in power were 3,703 megawatts.

 

Despite the substantial addition, it is estimated that the country still runs a deficit of more than 2,500 megawatts.