U.S. has sunk more than $200 million into one plant

By JACKIE SPINNER Washington Post

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Baiji, Iraq -- Plumes of smoke billowed from the Baiji power station, where a contingent of U.S. soldiers craned their necks and tried to count the long columns of soot shooting into the sky. There were definitely five. Dirty-faced and sweating in the midafternoon heat, the soldiers bobbed their helmets in agreement and beamed.

Five spewing smokestacks meant all but one of the steam-powered units at the power station were operational. That meant Baghdad, 125 miles to the south, was having a good power day because the Baiji station supplies more than one-third of the capital's electricity.

"Back in February, we'd come over this bend just hoping to see some smoke," said Capt. David Unger, the electricity adviser for the Army's 1st Infantry Division.

U.S. reconstruction authorities have poured more than $200 million into the power station in a race to bring more electricity to Iraq. Both the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Army Corps of Engineers have huge restoration projects under way within the complex, located between miles of blowing sand and farmland on the banks of the Euphrates River.

The Baiji power station can produce more electricity than any plant in the country. The steam-powered units should be producing up to 1,300 megawatts, which is enough power for about 4 million households. Instead, the plant produces 510 megawatts. That's 50 megawatts more than the plant produced before the beginning of the war last year.

"This number is going up, but it's very small," said Basem Janabi, a senior manager at the plant. "The main goal is not to increase capacity. The main thing is to keep up the load until next year, when we will have more stability."

U.S. engineers arrived to find it was barely holding together, the result of 13 years of economic sanctions. Security threats have made it difficult to bring in parts. Fuel shortages have hampered production. Iraqi engineers have been reluctant to take equipment off-line for repairs because the plant isn't producing enough power as it is.

"It is not for the lack of determination under some very austere conditions," said Lt. Col. Jeff Ogden, director of the Army Corps' electrical restoration program. "This is a combat zone, and there is still considerable insurgent activity. It has been difficult to obtain all the materials required where and when you need them."

America blamed

Though Iraq has more power than it did before the war, Baghdad has suffered. The capital had a steady flow of electricity under President Saddam Hussein, who supplied the capital at the expense of the rest of the country. National levels hover around 5,300 megawatts, short of the 6,000-megawatt goal that U.S. authorities wanted by June and not nearly enough to supply all of Iraq.

Many Baghdad residents blame the now-defunct U.S. occupation authority for the shortage.

"What do the Americans do for us? Nothing," said Sanaa Addallatif, 49, a resident of the wealthy Monsour neighborhood of Baghdad. "If they give the Iraqi people electricity and water, all the Iraqi people will love America."

Addallatif said her daughters, college students, have been unable to prepare for their exams because there is no power at night. Her emergency generator has broken three times, requiring the family to spend $700 to fix it.

"Every time it breaks, I have to go to the market to sell some of my gold," she said. "They spend the money to buy tanks, on bodyguards for our ministries, on new cars. But it's hot at night. I can't sleep. I want to send a message to George Bush. Where is the power? . . . We don't need to have a good president of Iraq. We don't need this new political process. We just need to have power."

Iraqi engineers at Baiji echoed her frustration at the pace of progress.

"It is going so slow," said Tahseen Zeki, the manager of a new mobile power station built by the Army Corps. "All the Iraqis, they just want to have electricity."

Zeki blamed the former occupation government. "It came down to this," he said, rubbing his fingers together as if they held cash.

The U.S. contractors live in guarded compounds at the power station, which is near the village of Hanshe, a farming community that protected the plant from looting immediately after the war.

Washington Group International of Idaho, the prime Army Corps contractor responsible for power generation in northern Iraq, built a new school for the village.

A sign in front of the school reads in English and Arabic: "This school is built and funded by Washington Group International, a (p)rivate American company. It is dedicated to the children of Al- Hanshe. Peace on Earth. Good will toward men."

Hasan Ali Abraham, the school's headmaster, said he was grateful to the contractors for building the school and to the 1st Infantry Division soldiers who patrol the area. The school "even has two air conditioners," he said proudly.

There's been one problem.

"There's not enough power for them to function," Abraham said. "In fact, all this village has very poor power. Think about it: We are neighbors with the power station."