By Jim Krane

09-02-04 People in Baghdad plan their evenings by looking at the four soaring smokestacks of the al-Dora power plant, rising above an otherwise picturesque bend in the Tigris River. When three or four of the stacks are smudging the skyline with inky smoke, there will be enough power to turn on the heater, watch TV, or read.
When just two are working -- the normal state of affairs in Baghdad -- dinner will probably be eaten by the light of a kerosene lantern. But for over a month, just one of al-Dora's sky scraping chimneys has been belching. Engineers say the plant is operating at 10 % capacity, leaving the Iraqi capital with electricity clicking on for two hours then vanishing for four.

The continuing blackouts have left people cynical about America's ability to help the country after 10 months of occupation. But the reasons behind the winter blackouts bode well for the searing Baghdad summer.
The al-Dora plant, which produces a third of Baghdad's power, has two of its four giantsteam turbine generators in the midst of a $ 50 mm overhaul. A third generator is broken and is being repaired.

The upgrades to the al-Dora plant -- expected to add 220 MW of power to Baghdad's grid -- are central to efforts by the US Agency for International Development and the US Army Corps of Engineers to boost Iraq's generating capacity to 6,000 MW per day by June.
"That's our goal," said Tom Wheelock, who heads US AID's infrastructure work in Iraq. "The big push is for this summer." US engineers estimate Iraq needs around 7,000 MW of electricity on hot summer days to keep air conditioners running. If 6,000 MW can be generated, Wheelock figures most Iraqis will have power at least 17 hours per day. The current average is 12 to 14 hours of power a day.

Residents of Baghdad and central Iraq cope with longer blackouts than Iraqis in the far north and south, Wheelock said. The al-Dora upgrade and a half-dozen other power projects will add a total of 2,200 MW of daily capacity to the grid, Wheelock said. Iraq also buys power from Syria and Turkey.
Two of al-Dora's crude oil-fired generators, built in 1978 by Germany's Siemens, are currently strewn in Volkswagen-sized pieces across the floor of the massive power station. A dozen Siemens technicians, working as subcontractors for US construction giant Bechtel, are scrambling to get them running by the summer. Engineers could be seen cleaning turbine blades and disassembling the massive generators. Broken parts need to be ordered from Germany, said William McCullough, a Bechtel engineer. The plant is also getting new computerized control room for the two German generators, which will eventually connect to a central distribution network for all of Iraq.

For now, the al-Dora plant is a study in decay. A third generator at the plant blew a high-pressure rotor and is being repaired. It won't be working for another six weeks, engineers at the plant said. Al-Dora's single operating generator produces just 75 MW per day, a fraction of the plant's potentialcapacity of 790 MW.
Al-Dora's miserable story parallels that of Iraq's electrical infrastructure. The country has an installed capacity of 10,000 MW per day, and was able to generate up to 9,000 MW in years past, said Fayik Mustafa, the site manager for the al-Dora station and a power engineer in Iraq since 1966. But wars and sanctions interfered.

Iran bombed the al-Dora plant in the 1980s. It was repaired and upgraded and was operating at peak performance when five American cruise missiles pulverized it in 1991. The attack toppled one of al-Dora's signature smokestacks. American bombing in the Gulf War knocked out 60 % of Iraq's generation capacity, Mustafa said.
Iraqi workers, overseen by Mustafa, quickly rebuilt the downed stack and painted it with the Iraqi flag. But the plant -- and Iraq's ability to generate electricity -- never fully recovered.

Pushed by Saddam Hussein, engineers worked like fiends to restart the plant in two months, a feat often cited by Iraqis who complain that Americanengineers haven't been able to fix the power as quickly as Saddam. By the time the Americans invaded in March, Iraq's generation capacity had slipped to 4,400 MW -- half its 1990 level -- due to broken or inefficiently running generators.
"The country needed power," Mustafa said. "There was no time for maintenance."
Mustafa said his Baghdad neighbours now harangue him about the slow pace of the current repairs, telling him he isn't working hard enough. The complete overhauls are meant to modernize the plant, along with Iraq's electrical grid, leaving it ready for the long haul.