Power grid repairs
The Baghdad East-Kirkuk 400-kV line, which went out of service on
December 23 due to sabotage, was brought back online December 27. One
tower had been sabotaged and at least one conductor cut 25 kilometers
south of Tuz. Excessive rain made access to the area difficult, and
repairs could not begin until an explosive ordnance disposal team
cleared the site. Baghdad East-Kirkuk, a redundant line that transfers
power from northern to central Iraq, also failed in mid-November due
to high winds, causing a blackout across central and southern Iraq.
Loss of the power line severely limits the network's ability to
transfer power since other north-south conduits--such as the 400-kV
Baghdad West-Bayji line and the 132-kV Taji-Bayji line--need to be run
on a relatively low load to ensure system stability.
The Musalla-Rumaila 132-kV line has been repaired and was re-energized
on December 26. Seven towers on the line had been sabotaged since
mid-December. The line transfers power from Al Basrah to An Nasiriyah
and ties southern Iraq to the rest of the network.
Power production varied over the weekend, reaching a strong peak
generation on December 25 and producing a consistently high number of
megawatt hours.
December 23: 2,978 MW 66,890 MW hours
December 25: 3,757 MW 75,403 MW hours
December 26: 3,307 MW 75,943 MW hours
December 27: 3,535 MW 75,419 MW hours
As of December 27, 44 units with the capacity to produce 1,954 MW of
power were offline for service. Twenty units with the capacity to
produce 637 MW were out for unscheduled service and three thermal and
seven gas turbine units with the capacity to produce 414 MW of power
were out for scheduled rehabilitation. Nine thermal units and five gas
turbine units with the capacity to produce 903 MW of power are out of
service for scheduled maintenance.
Under a contract signed last week, General Electric will rehabilitate
five generators at the Mosul East plant. Work is scheduled to begin
today and last 35 days. The restored units will add 62 MW of capacity
to the north.
# posted by Zeyad : 1/01/2004 02:57:58 PM
The New Year, Iraqi Christians, Alcohol, and other things
(This was supposed to be posted yesterday but I didn't have enough
time to visit an Internet cafe).
First I wish everyone all the best for 2004.
The eve of the New Year for me has always been the gloomiest and most
depressing time of the year. While the rest of the world celebrates
till the early morning I would be sitting over drinks with friends
while wearily staring at each other, cursing our lost youth, and
wondering what the future will bring us. At some of these occasions we
don't even notice the clock striking twelve, sometimes we just blurt
out a half-hearted hurray, greet each other and sit back drinking
ourselves to oblivion.
This year doesn't look any different, we already did our shopping and
are getting ready for a long night of discussing boring topics such as
philosophy, politics, and our faceless future.
I read today in the papers an account of the murder of Bashir Thomas
Elias, an Iraqi Christian who ran a liquor store in Basrah. It was
Christmas Eve and he was heading back home from the market to
celebrate with his family when someone shot him in the head and walked
away amid onlooking Basrawis.
There were about 200 licensed alcohol dealers in Basrah before the
war, today there is none, and we were there to see for ourselves. Most
of these stores were looted and burnt during the last few months and
the rest were forced to close under murder threats from hardliners and
Shi'ite extremist groups such as Hizb Allah (The party of Allah),
Intiqam Allah (The revenge of Allah), and Munadhamat Qawa'id Al-Islam.
These groups are powerful and influential in Basrah and already have
many of their members in local municipal councils. Faysal Abdallah a
leader of one of these groups stated that Allah will reward the
virtuous who seek Shahada fighting vice in his name but he described
these summary executions of Iraqi Christians as 'unacceptable
behaviour'.
Basrah is populated by 100,000 Christians. About 2000 of them have
already left their hometown and migrated to other cities such as
Baghdad and Mosul, the rest are living in fear for their lives. Some
of them are wondering if they were not better off with Saddam and the
secular Ba'ath in power.
"Our daughters are persecuted in college" said Wisam Abdalahad a store
owner in Basrah. "They are being intimidated by their teachers and
professors and told to wear Hijab".
Of course Islam apologists respond by "No, Islam is the religion of
peace and tolerance" and they cite the Quranic verse 'There is no
compulsion in religion'. They always seem to forget this other verse
(29) from Surat Al-Tawba: "Fight those who do not believe in Allah and
the judgement day, those who do not prohibit what Allah and his
messenger have prohibited, and those who do not profess the true faith
from Ahl AlKitab* till they pay the Jizyah with the hand of humility".
*Christians, Jews, and Mandeans are referred to as Ahl AlKitab or
Dhimmis in the Quran.
So Muslim clerics worldwide should gather and either renounce these
inciting verses or issue fatwas that they are inapplicable in todays
world. One cannot say that he truly believes in the holy message of
peace and tolerance in the Quran and yet at the same time ignore these
violent and scary verses. It would result in double talk and
inconsistency in thought and behaviour which in extreme cases lead to
terrorism. It has to be one way or the other. Muslim leaders should
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