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Engineers Race to Fix Iraq Power Plants
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-Doraâs skyscraping chimneys has been belching. Engineers say the plant is operating at 10 percent capacity, leaving the Iraqi capital with electricity clicking on for two hours then vanishing for four. I speculate that you can achieve 10% capacity in a four generator plant if you trash 7 of 8 Main Feed Booster Pumps and have enough soot blowers down that you have caked the firesides of the generating tubes with soot. Congratulations, youâre a moron. The continuing blackouts have left people cynical about Americaâs ability to help the country after 10 months of occupation. But the reasons behind the winter blackouts bode well for the searing Baghdad summer. Be cynical all you want asswipes. Try removing random parts of your cars engine and then poring a cup of sugar in your gas tank. Then complain that your car is in the shop for a week. The al-Dora plant, which produces a third of Baghdadâs power, has two of its four giant steam turbine generators in the midst of a $50 million overhaul. A third generator is broken and is being repaired. The upgrades to the al-Dora plant -- expected to add 220 megawatts of power to Baghdadâs grid -- are central to efforts by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to boost Iraqâs generating capacity to 6,000 megawatts per day by June. "Thatâs our goal," said Tom Wheelock, who heads U.S. AIDâs infrastructure work in Iraq. "The big push is for this summer." U.S. engineers estimate Iraq needs around 7,000 megawatts of electricity on hot summer days to keep air conditioners running. If 6,000 megawatts 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 megawatts of daily capacity to the grid, Wheelock said. Iraq also buys power from Syria and Turkey. Two of al-Doraâs crude oil-fired generators, built in 1978 by Germanyâs Siemens, are currently strewn in Volkswagen-sized pieces across the floor of the massive power station. A dozen Siemens technicians, working as subcontractors for U.S. construction giant Bechtel, are scrambling to get them running by the summer. Engineers could be seen Saturday 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 wonât be working for another six weeks, engineers at the plant said. Al-Doraâs single operating generator produces just 75 megawatts per day, a fraction of the plantâs potential capacity of 790 megawatts. Al-Doraâs miserable story parallels that of Iraqâs electrical infrastructure. The country has an installed capacity of 10,000 megawatts per day, and was able to generate up to 9,000 megawatts in years past, said Fayik Mustafa, the site manager for the al-Dora station and a power engineer in Iraq since 1966. ... Pushed by Saddam Hussein, engineers worked like fiends to restart the plant in two months, a feat often cited by Iraqis who complain that American engineers havenât been able to fix the power as quickly as Saddam. By the time the Americans invaded in March, Iraqâs generation capacity had slipped to 4,400 megawatts -- half its 1990 level -- due to broken or inefficiently running generators. "The country needed power," Mustafa said. "There was no time for maintenance."
Tell them to STFU or go back to molesting their livestock and be glad those generators didnât shake itself loose of its mounting and try to fly out of the building. It would have been harder to fix if it broke into little pieces. Posted by: Super Hose 2004-02-09 |
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