Local firm to finish power plant in Iraq

ARBIL - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s Çalık Energy plans to complete its 750 MW power plant in Mosul, Iraq, by this September. AA Photo

Turkey’s Çalık Energy plans to complete its 750 megawatt (MW) Nainawa power plant in Mosul, Iraq, and make it operational by this September, despite difficulties in the region.

The Nainawa will be the fourth biggest power plant in Iraq when it is complete, project manager Abdullah Baş said.

“We are building the biggest power plant of the country as well, the 1000-MW al-Khairat in Kerbela, with eight turbines. We will be meeting one-eighth of Iraq’s power consumption needs with these two power plants,” Baş added.

The Nainawa has six turbines. The company powered two turbines in previous months, and plans to power two more turbines in two weeks. “All turbines will be powered by the end of this September, meeting the power needs of the province of Mosul,” he said, adding that 110 engineers and over 1,000 workers were employed for the $388.5 million project.

“It is very difficult to make business in this geographical location. We use armored vehicles for transportation here,” Baş said. He noted that the company could have established around 10 production facilities in Turkey with the money that was spent for the project, mainly due to the difficulties in the transportation of building and other materials to the region.

“If we had built the power plant in the KRG or Turkmenistan, we could have finished the project eight months ago,” Baş added.

The firm had previously built six power plants in Turkmenistan, planning three more. power plants to complete by the end of 2014.