Bechtel has been awarded a $680 million contract from the US Agency for International Development to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure. However, this is only a small fraction of the cost of the full extent of work envisaged. Clifford Mumm, Bechtel's project director for the Iraq reconstruction, said: "It's the cost of building a single power plant. It's not a lot of money." Bechtel has programme management responsibility for the reconstruction of Iraq's ports, water systems, road, bridges, electric power system, including a new plant at Basra, and airports. Four districts have been established in the Mosul-Erbil area, Basra, Baghdad and Hilla, designated North, South, Central and Heartland.
Mumm said: "We have a two-pronged approach. The first is to get these sectors up and running. Our parallel path is to go into the four districts and assess how best to apply the available money." The condition of the power system is a mixed bag, said Mumm. The gas-fired Nasiriya power plant can generate at its full rated capacity of 840 MWe, but a plant farther south is operating at only 25 per cent capacity. The United Nations Iraq Programme last November estimated the country's total generation capacity at 4300-4400 MWe. Power improvement is most urgently needed in the south and central districts, Mumm said. The north relies largely on hydroelectric power and there was less war damage in the north than in the south. The eastern side of the transmission system is up, but the link between Central and South districts lacks redundancy. "We need the 400 kV line back," he said. "We do know that the Iraqis themselves, of their own volition, have been repairing the transmission lines." Baghdad imports power from both north and south, and its electricity has been temporarily restored, but is not yet reliable.
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