الإمكانات الجغرافية لاستثمار الطاقة الكهرومائية في العراق

Abstract EN

Hydropower plants are among the cleanest types of power plants and the most efficient in the production of electric power compared to steam and gas plants, with efficiency ranging from 80% to 90% depending on the type of turbine used in the plant.

In Iraq, hydropower has been invested since 1971, which Samarra station is the first hydroelectric plant to be produced in 1972, with hydropower plants contributing 6% of Iraq’s total electricity production.

Iraq has 10 hydroelectric plants, two of them are in the Kurdistan region because it has got a geographical potential, which has allowed it to invest this important source, particularly its possession of two rivers running from north to south as well as economic and population potential, but these stations have suffered continuously from the decline of the economic utilization factor to less than 50%, which is due to a number of reasons, the most important one is the reduction of water levels as well as the technical failures.

And the need for clean electric power and the constant calls for investing renewable energy require an increase in the number of hydroelectric plants built on dams in Iraq, as well as taking into account the geographical distribution when establishing them, And the investment of dams where there is the possibility of establishing hydroelectric plants, which have not yet been invested such as Al-Kut Dam, Al-Azim Dam, Debs Dam on the Tigris River and Ramadi Dam on the Euphrates River, which can enhance the relative importance of hydropower and increase its contribution to the provision of electricity and provide technical maintenance of dams to maintain water levels and increase the number of generating units in hydroelectric plants, There must be official agreements to solve the problems of Iraq's participation with neighboring countries with (Turkey, Iran and Syria) in river basins to determine water revenues among these countries.