History | Iraqi Local Partners | Electricity Network | MOE Structure | Past & Present Situation | Int. Companies | Studies | Projects
Electricity was first introduced to Iraq in 1917, when the British troops entered Baghdad. British forces installed a number of generators for their own use, and they supplied some neighbouring districts to their camps with electricity. In the twenties and thirties, railway and oil companies installed more generators for their use, and some major municipalities established their own networks.
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The first steam power station was established in 1933, when the Anglo-Dutch Lighting Company started operating two units of 2.5 MW each in the Al-Sarafiya district of Baghdad. Meanwhile, local municipalities in various governates in Iraq continued to expand its services to many of Iraq's cities and towns.
In 1955, the Anglo-Dutch Lighting Company was nationalized, and all its assets were transferred to the newly established Baghdad Directorate of Electricity. In 1959, the Ministry of Industry's National Electricity Directorate was established, and took over the role of supplying governates outside Baghdad with electricity. Municipalities turned over all of its electricity departments and assets to the National Electricity Directorate.
In the sixties, Baghdad Directorate of Electricity was dissolved and merged into the National Electricity Directorate. Since then, all management, operational and procurement decisions were made by the Ministry headquarter in Baghdad. In the seventies, the State Enterprise for Generation and Transmission of Electricity was established to give some autonomy to the sector, but remained run as a government agency under the Ministry of Industry. |
Enterprise for Generation and Transmission of Electricity was established, but remained run as a government agency under the Ministry of Industry. Generation (and transmission up to 33 kV), and distribution were organized in 1974 as separate enterprises within the State Enterprise for Generation and Transmission of Electricity.
Iraqi electric power consumption increased by a factor of fourteen in the twenty-year period between 1968 and 1988 and in the late 1980s it was expected to double every four to five years. Ongoing rural electrification contributed to increased demand; about 7,000 villages throughout the nation were provided electricity in the same twenty-year period. The destruction in 1980 of power-generating facilities near the Iran-Iraq border interrupted only temporarily the period growth in the production and consumption. In 1981 the government awarded US$2 billion in contracts to foreign construction companies that were building hydroelectric and thermal generating plants as well as transmission facilities. By 1983 the production and consumption of electricity had recovered to the pre- |
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war levels of 15.6 billion kwh (kilowatt hours) and 117 billion kwh, respectively. As previously commissioned projects continued to come on stream, Iraq's generating capacity was expected to exceed 6,000 megawatt by 1986. in December 1987, following the completing of power lines designed to carry 400 million kwh of power turkey, Iraq become the first country in the middle east to export the electric power. Iraq was expected to earn US$ 15 million annually from this arrangement. Long-range plans entailed exporting an additional 3 billion kwh to turkey and eventually providing Kuwait with electricity. |
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