The ‘Heidarieh’ power plant, which uses a simple-cycle gas unit to produce 162 MW of electricity for the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala has been set up by the Iranian company MAPNA and is furnished with the Iranian equipment.
The plant was inaugurated on Thursday in a ceremony attended by Iran’s Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian and Iraq’s Minister of Electricity Qasim al-Fahdawi.
Power generated by the Heidarieh plant lights up holy shrines of Shiite Imams in Najaf and Karbala as well as large parts of residential areas in the two cities.
The Iranian and Iraqi ministers also agreed that MAPNA upgrades the power plant to a 500 MW combined-cycle one, capable of producing electricity for the whole areas in Najaf and Karbala.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Iranian energy minister announced the country’s preparedness to increase its power exports to Iraq.
"We are ready to scale up electricity exports to the country after we reach necessary agreements,” Chitchian said, adding that based on previous agreements Iran can transfer 1490 megawatts of electricity to Iraq per day.
Iran’s daily electricity exports to Iraq amount to 1300 megawatts and the annual exports are totally valued at one billion dollars.
Back in 2013, the two sides agreed to increase electricity exports from Iran to Iraq by 500 megawatts.
Iranian companies have so far completed 10 projects in Iraq in the area of water and electricity and another 27 projects of the companies valued at $1.245 billion are still underway in the country.