The Department of Geography and Information Systems at the College of Arts / University of Basrah organized a workshop on electrical energy in Iraq within a century.

The workshop aimed to review the change in the structure of production and consumption of electricity in Iraq from the introduction of electric current with the British occupation authorities in 1917 until 2020.

The workshop, in which Asst. Prof. Dr. Rashid Abed Rashid Al-Sharifi lectured, included that the electric power system in Iraq has undergone many changes, including the direction of Iraq since the thirties of the last century when the central stations such as the Sarafiya station were established towards Swiss and English companies, and then turned after 1985 towards  Russian, Czechoslovakian and Polish companies, and after 2003 they shift towards American, Chinese and Korean companies.

After 2003, Iraq moved towards importing gas stations and diesel units that are not compatible with the nature of Iraq’s loads and atmosphere and the lack of natural gas as the fuel operating for these stations at the expense of steam stations, thus creating a gap between production and consumption and the renewal of the problem of energy deficit in every summer season.

The workshop recommended:

 1- The trend towards establishing thermal (steam) stations near water and fuel sources.

 2- Reducing and stopping the construction of gas and diesel stations.

3- The trend towards investing in renewable energies, especially solar, and establishing a national center to manage and maintain solar energies.

 4- Working on the exploitation of associated gas and not wasting it, as it represents fuel for gas stations, and limiting the import of gas from neighboring countries.