Power plans confront fuel, infrastructure problems

BAGHDAD - Power projects scheduled for commissioning within the next three years will add nearly 11,000 megawatts to the country's electricity production capacity, including more than 1,000 megawatts by the end of this year.

Iraqis, however, experience power in “megawatt hours” – that is, the average daily supply that reaches their homes and businesses. When 700 megawatts go offline for maintenance combined with a sudden spike in temperature, as it did recently, the power supply can drop to near zero megawatt hours per day, regardless of Iraq’s nominal electricity-generating capacity. Especially when this happens during the summer, the ministry becomes the target of the country's overheated ire.