Iraq power system requires annual investment of $4bn says minister
25 April 2007 - Iraq's Minister of Electricity Dr Karim Hasan said yesterday that his country will need between $4.0bn and $4.5bn spent on its electricity infrastructure each year in order to install the necessary new power plants and rehabilitate existing plants. His comments came during a meeting in London with members of the Middle East Association, one of a series of UK meeting the minister has planned with companies in the power industry.
Hasan said that Iraqi citizens now have one of the lowest rates of power supply in the world with around 700 KWh per person per year compared to an average of around 4000 KWh per person per year in the rest of the Middle East.
The Minister called for the lifting of embargos on working in Iraq that some international companies have imposed. "We need the help of the international community if we are to get the necessary power plants and sub-stations built."
Hasan commented that Iraq was well place for wheeling power from the south and from Iran.
Another member of the delegation from Baghdad, Senior Advisor to the Iraqi ministry of electricity Ahmed Kaldi, said that money wasn't always the issue but that the complications of being able to use allocation resources meant much went unused. "Last year only 30 per cent of the budget was spend," he said.
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