The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s Agriculture and Water Resources Ministry has invited companies to prequalify for contracts to build seven hydropower dams.

The projects will be procured under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.  The dams will range in size from a 2,400 million cubic metres dam with a power generation capacity of 270MW to a dam with a volume of 112 million cubic metres and generating capacity of 24MW.

Total installed capacity in the Kurdistan region at the end of 2012 was 3,790MW. Demand in Kurdistan has been growing at an annual rate of about 15 per cent for the past three years, with this rate of growth expected to continue in the coming years, according to government sources.

In order to cope with the growing demand, Hamah-Ameen Hawramany, electricity director-general for the Electricity Ministry told MEED’s Kurdistan Projects conference in early June that a total of about 4,000 MW of additional power capacity was under construction and planned. The new capacity will be a mix of conventional thermal power and hydropower plants.