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18/11/2011 09:43
Baghdad, Nov.18 (AKnews)- As the load over the national grid has dropped, the Iraqi Electricity Ministry has decided to raise the duration of power supply for citizens to 16 hours per day.
During summer, in addition to the few hours from national grid, government also guaranteed citizens 12 hours of discount-priced electricity from local generators.
Ministry spokesman, Mosa'b al-Modarres, told AKnews as the weather has got milder and people do not use air-coolers anymore, the load over national grid has dropped and currently government provides 16 hours of electricity for the citizens from national grid.
This summer the temperature in Baghdad reached 50 degree. In the southern provinces sometimes it exceeded half-boiling degree.
Government's failure to supply regular power in the scorching weather led to floods of public protests.
It is usually during the night that the citizens are supplied with continuous power, Mr. Modarres said.
The government is incapable of providing the required volume of power. Though the national grid has doubled in capacity since 2003, the growing supply is being outpaced by demand, as citizens gain access to more and more appliances and electronics.
The country’s power plants currently produce about 8,000 megawatts of electricity, versus demand that reached 15,500 megawatts last summer.
Reports say in order to improve the situation the government needs annual investments in the sector, not less than US$3 billion for at least four coming years.
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Baghdad, Nov.18 (AKnews)- As the load over the national grid has dropped, the Iraqi Electricity Ministry has decided to raise the duration of power supply for citizens to 16 hours per day.
During summer, in addition to the few hours from national grid, government also guaranteed citizens 12 hours of discount-priced electricity from local generators.
Ministry spokesman, Mosa'b al-Modarres, told AKnews as the weather has got milder and people do not use air-coolers anymore, the load over national grid has dropped and currently government provides 16 hours of electricity for the citizens from national grid.
This summer the temperature in Baghdad reached 50 degree. In the southern provinces sometimes it exceeded half-boiling degree.
Government's failure to supply regular power in the scorching weather led to floods of public protests.
It is usually during the night that the citizens are supplied with continuous power, Mr. Modarres said.
The government is incapable of providing the required volume of power. Though the national grid has doubled in capacity since 2003, the growing supply is being outpaced by demand, as citizens gain access to more and more appliances and electronics.
The country’s power plants currently produce about 8,000 megawatts of electricity, versus demand that reached 15,500 megawatts last summer.
Reports say in order to improve the situation the government needs annual investments in the sector, not less than US$3 billion for at least four coming years.
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