Baghdad The Global General Electric Company specialized in the fields of energy, aviation and health (GE) revealed the need for Iraq to enhance its capabilities in the production of electric power.
Rashid Al-Janabi, CEO of General Electric in Iraq, told the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA) that Iraq is currently facing a major challenge in energy resources, but there are many qualified solutions to address this shortage, and “General Electric” possesses innovative and reliable technologies to contribute to filling the gap. The gap within the Iraqi energy sector and that these solutions support the plan set by the Iraqi government to improve the electricity reality in the country.
He explained that what Iraq needs now lies within multi-axes tracks, including: adding energy to the national grid through developing and building new stations, improving operations and performance in the current stations used for power generation, and enhancing the performance and stability of the national electricity network.
He pointed out that power stations that operate today on simple cycle can be converted to combined cycle to enhance their production capacity by up to 50% without the need to use additional fuel or increase their emissions, an example of this is the Basmajah plant, which operates in combined cycle with General Electric units, which is the largest power station today. The most efficient of them in Iraq, pointing out that Iraq can benefit from its natural gas resources and convert it into fuel to produce electricity by building giant plants and using dozens of HA gas turbines manufactured by General Electric, which are the most efficient globally to meet the future need for energy in Iraq.
Al-Janabi explained that maintaining what Iraq produces today and carrying out repair and service operations in electric power plants in various parts of Iraq, can result in maintaining the supply of more than 8,000 megawatts of electric power, to meet the peak demand during the summer.
On strengthening the electric power transmission network in Iraq, Al-Janabi said: It is possible to strengthen the Iraqi power transmission network by building secondary stations that contribute to opening bottlenecks, especially in densely populated areas, in addition to transferring the energy produced from stations to cities and governorates, and we are also working to connect the network with the Kingdom of Jordan, in a step that will contribute significantly to removing the pressures placed on the network and supplying electric power according to the highest levels of reliability.
He stressed that GE is fully prepared to support Iraq in providing the necessary funding to build strategic projects to cover its need for electrical energy resources, and our financing capacity depends on our global expertise and on our solid relationships with export insurance agencies in several countries around the world, as well as with major institutions Finance, where we have already, in cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Finance, secured the financing of several important projects in the energy sector with a value of more than two billion US dollars.
He added that among the immediate solutions that can be used quickly is the installation of mobile units TM2500 in the oil fields to benefit from the associated gas for the production of electric power and in a period not exceeding several months to produce hundreds of megawatts, which the national network greatly needs, and to end the phenomenon of burning associated gas, which affects our environment in Iraq to a large extent.
Regarding the possibility of establishing installed plants in the various regions of Iraq, Al-Janabi said: The HA technology developed by General Electric is considered the most and fastest growing gas turbine in the world, and has contributed to achieving two world records in the efficiency of power generation, and highlights the importance of this technology because it allows the generation of large quantities of electricity and more power, without the need for extra fuel. An important example of these giant H-type turbines is in the UAE, where GE is building the Hamriyah plant and installing three H-type turbines to produce 1,800 megawatts.
On the impact of the Corona pandemic on the company’s work in some stations and projects completed during the past six months, Al-Janabi explained that General Electric began, months ago, to form a working team in coordination with the Ministry of Electricity and the relevant departments to facilitate work even during times of curfew, referring to the completed projects of Samawah and Dhi Qar stations by the company, where the work continued despite the challenges, especially the Corona epidemic, as the highest health standards were taken to ensure the safety of employees and partners, and the first phase of the Samawa power plant with a capacity of 500 megawatts and Dhi Qar power station with a capacity of 500 megawatts was completed and handed over to the Ministry of Electricity.
He pointed out that the company’s staff have reached the last steps for the completion of the Zubair plant, which will add 700 megawatts of electric power, noting that work is still underway to expand Basmaya power station in Baghdad to introduce an additional 1,500 megawatts to reach 4,500 megawatts, the largest in Iraq.
Al-Janabi confirmed that the company is also working to support the national electricity transmission network to open up bottlenecks and deliver the electricity produced to Iraqi cities and governorates, where GE has completed four transformative stations, two of them in Baghdad and two in Karbala.
Regarding the possibility of establishing electrical and secondary stations in the liberated areas such as Mosul, Anbar and Salah al-Din, al-Janabi said: Work is underway to build secondary stations in Mosul and Salah al-Din to support the stability of the network in these areas after they were damaged, knowing that GE was one of the first companies to enter the liberated areas.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency