France’s Alstom has been awarded a $311m contract by Iraq’s Electricity Ministry to provide turbines and associated equipment for a major new power plant in the country.

The French firm will provide four gas turbines, four heat recovery steam generators, two steam turbines and turbo-generators for the 1,642MW Al-Anbar power facility. The combined-cycle gas-fired plant is being built by Greece’s Metka and is due to be commissioned in 2016. The Greek contractor was awarded the $1bn deal to build the facility in April 2013.

 At MEED’s Iraq Energy Projects conference held in Dubai in February, Karim Aftan al-Jumaili, Iraq’s Electricity Minister, said 21,000MW a new power capacity was planned in order to meet forecast capacity in the coming years. Al-Jumaili said 6,000MW of new capacity was in the contract negotiation phase and an additional proposed 15,000MW was at the study phase.