Thursday's Iraq-GE deal addresses shortcomings in previous MoUs: source

Shafaq News/ The ministry of electricity's deal with the US General Electric (GE) company aims to address the shortcomings of previous deals, a government source revealed on Thursday.

GE partnered with the Iraqi government on many previous occasions. In 2018, the company won a $15 billion deal against competitor Siemens to reinvigorate Iraq's dilapidated electricity grid.

"Today's memorandum of understanding (MoU) addresses the obstacles impeding the implementation of projects the ministry and the company had agreed on in previous MoUs," the source told Shafaq News Agency.

"These obstacles are mainly related to the lack of funding for plants run by fossil oil," the source said, "the deal will help boost production, reduce power production, improve the competence of power plants in service, and establish a control center."

Earlier today, Iraq signed a five-year MoU with GE to 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.

According to the deal, 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."

"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," a statement by al-Sudani's bureau said.