Baghdad – INA – Amna Al-Salami
The Ministry of Electricity revealed details of its plans to diversify energy sources, while predicting that energy production will reach 22 thousand megawatts during next summer.
Ministry spokesman Ahmed Musa Al-Abadi told the (INA), today, Monday, that “there are efforts by the Ministry of Electricity to diversify energy sources and adopt solar energy and alternative energies for waste recycling, which was crystallized by the referral of the first licensing round in 5 governorates.”
He added, “The referrals in the first round were made after studying the technical and commercial offers, at a rate of 755 megawatts in the governorates of Najaf, Karbala, Babil, Samawah, and Qadisiyah,” indicating that “this round seeks to generate energy through solar energies by installing solar panels in each of the five governorates.” In cooperation with the governors, solar energy projects require the allocation of plots of land.”
He pointed out that “the governors of Najaf, Karbala, Al-Qadisiyah and Babil were cooperating in this field and allocated a group of lands. A group of governors were also addressed to obtain approvals regarding the allocation of lands so that the ministry could refer the second round of licensing in the governorates so that solar energy would be a substitute for addressing the system’s situation.”
He explained, “The first round, which includes 755 megawatts, will begin work on it and it is expected that it will be ready for work next summer,” pointing out that “the ministry had held discussions with the Ministry of Oil because it wants to install solar energy systems in the oil fields to generate 750 megawatts.” Which will be for the Ministry of Oil only, and the Ministry’s vital facilities will benefit from it, and thus it will reflect positively on the status of electrical energy and the energy system.”
He continued, “These vital installations consume a lot of energy, stressing that installing these projects will provide energy for these oil projects, which will reduce the burden on the electrical system in general.”
He pointed out that “there is a large number of works to carry out maintenance, including periodic and emergency ones, to keep the production stations operating and to complete the maintenance around the summer, indicating that it is expected that the targeted production for this year during the summer will reach 22 thousand megawatts.”
He stated, “Last summer, production reached 19,000 megawatts, pointing out that the ministry is seeking to reach 22,000 megawatts in the current production before the summer in the event that the Iranian side resumes releasing gas, as there is a decline in the release of Iranian gas.”
He went on to say: “Generating stations will be introduced in the fourth month to reach a production rate of 22 thousand megawatts before the summer, and this will reflect positively on the energy situation.”
He noted that “the Ministry is proceeding with solar energy projects, as the work will be divided into stages, including projects of 300 megawatts in Karbala. If these companies working on producing part of it succeed, it will enter the system, ruling out the completion of solar energy projects during next summer.”
He stressed the work on “resuming the flow of Iranian gas to reach 22 thousand megawatts, in addition to completing periodic maintenance, as there are generating units that will enter service at the end of the fourth month.”
He stated that “the processing hours will not be equal in the governorates and will be determined by the size of the violations on the network,” indicating that “this depends on several factors, including the commitment of citizens and not exceeding them, as well as the volume of consumption, in addition to other factors such as damage to the transformers in the network.”
Moussa added, “The Ministry has contracts with government companies and the private sector to import transformers, a first batch of which has arrived, and there are other batches that will arrive, but it is not possible to predict the hours of preparation for next summer.”