Iraq signs five-year MoU with General Electric

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq on Thursday signed a five year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the American General Electric (GE) company to further develop the country’s electricity sector.

The MoU was signed between the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity and GE under the auspices of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, through which the company will contribute to “developing the electricity sector in production, increasing its efficiency in transmission, maintenance, staff training, and reducing carbon emissions to support the energy sector transition in Iraq,” read a statement obtained by Rudaw.

“The memorandum also included conducting studies for utilizing associated gas and building several secondary power plants with a capacity of (400 and 133 kV) and connecting them to various governorates of Iraq and also establishing a monitoring center for the performance and operation of the units,” the statement added.

GE has been working with the Iraqi government for years. In 2018, the company won a $15 billion deal against competitor Siemens to reenergize Iraq's suffering electricity grid.

The MoU follows a visit by the Iraqi delegation led by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein to the US earlier this week, where both sides agreed to work on developing Iraq's energy industry, and help Baghdad "invest in energy infrastructure initiatives designed to improve electricity services for the Iraqi people, secure Iraq’s energy self-sufficiency, and mitigate environmental damage to both the global climate and Iraqi public health," read a joint statement from both governments on Wednesday.

Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, especially felt when summer temperatures reach scorching levels of over 50 degrees Celsius. The high temperatures subsequently push citizens to consume excessive amounts of power.

In an attempt to increase the country’s electricity supply, Iraq reached an agreement with Jordan to import 150 megawatts of power in late 2022, and has reportedly finished its technical supplies to import 500 megawatts from Turkey.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia signed an electricity interconnection agreement in July which will see Baghdad linking its electric power grid with the Gulf, implementing a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries on the same topic earlier in the year.   

In 2019, Iraq signed a deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) aiming to increase the electricity supply in Iraq and push Baghdad to be less dependent on Iranian energy. Under the plan that is yet to be implemented, Iraq was expected to import 500 megawatts of electricity from Gulf countries on the payroll of the GCCIA before the summer of 2022. However, due to the spread of the coronavirus and the global economic crisis, implementation was delayed.