Iraq’s government and German industrial conglomerate Siemens have signed a framework agreement to upgrade the electricity grid of the power-strapped country. “This includes the addition of new and highly-efficient power generation capacity, rehabilitation and upgrade of existing plants and the expansion of transmission and distribution networks,” Siemens said in a statement. Abdel-Mahdi said Iraq planned to make around $14 billion in orders to upgrade electricity infrastructure, which has fallen into poor condition due to war, corruption and mismanagement. Siemens intends to increase electricity production in Iraq by around 50% through the building of new power plants, upgrading existing ones and modernizing the inefficient electricity grid. Iraq suffers from major electricity shortages despite sitting on some of the world’s largest oil and gas fields.

Source: Egypt Independent May 01, 2019 09:00 UTC