US firm General Electric (GE) has signed a contract to provide four gas turbines and one steam turbine for a new power plant in Bazyan in the Suleimaniyah province in northern Iraq.

The 750MW combined-cycle plant is being developed by the local Qaiwan Group, in partnership with Turkish construction company Enka. It is due for completion in December 2015, and will provide 750,000 households with power.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) aims to increase electricity production by 25 per cent to 6,000MW by 2016 to meet rising demand in the region.

The three firms have collaborated on three previous power plant projects in the Kurdish region, in Dohuk, Erbil and Suleimaniyah, with GE supplying 24 turbines for them.