Why Iraq lacks power

We're talking Iraq, courtesy of Energista's discovery of an excellent piece on the rebuilding of the Iraqi electrical system. It's an account of a journalist for Spectrum magazine, the trade publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and his visit to Iraq. It may be from a technical group, but it's as accessible as USA Today, with some excellent personal perspective on what's gone wrong with reconstruction of the electrical grid. Some highlights:

• Of those Iraqis who do pay for electricity, the price is around $0.0007 per kwh (compared to $0.01-$0.05 in neighboring countries). Thus, demand increases faster than reconstruction can build power plants.
• Early reconstruction officials ordered power plants that could be brought on quickly, ignoring the fact that they run on fuels - highly distilled diesel or natural gas - that aren't readily available.
• Ironically, in light of the above, there's millions of cubic feet of natural gas being burned off at Iraq's oilfields, when it could be collected and used to generate electricity.

Oh, and if you know what Digg is, I submitted this story over there and would appreciate your digg.