Iraq to appoint Siemens for electricity programme

29 August 2018
German company will assist with plans to modernise and expand the country's electricity network

Iraq’s government is planning to appoint Germany’s Siemens to assist with a programme designed to boost the Gulf country’s ailing electricity network.

Speaking at a press briefing on 28 August, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that the government was aiming to sign an agreement with the German company to carry out a modernisation of the electricity sector, from production through to distribution.

“This is to draw a roadmap, a full programme, and a full scheme to make reforms in the electricity sector in Iraq,” Al-Abadi was quoted as saying by local press. “The next step will be signing an agenda with the company. We want it in a complete way, starting with citizens and ending with generation.”

Siemens has already been awarded a handful of contracts to supply turbines for Iraq’s power sector in 2018. The German firm was recently awarded a contract to upgrade two power generation units at the Al-Sadder power plant in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Earlier in August, the company was awarded a contract to add an additional 650MW of capacity to the existing Shat al-Basra power station in the southern region of the country. Siemens will upgrade the existing power plant to a combined-cycle facility as part of the upgrade.

In April, Siemens was awarded a contract to increase the capacity of the Rumaila power plant in Iraq by 700MW.

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