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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Good News from Iraq: 23 Oct 2007

From MNF-I, Army Engineers work to improve Maysan’s electrical system.

MAYSAN ــــ The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hard at work on $20 million worth of projects to improve the electrical system throughout Iraq’s Maysan Province.

Maj. Steven Herda, resident engineer at the Corps’ Basrah Area Office, said the construction of seven “33/11” electric substations in Maysan will provide a more reliable and up-to-date electric transmission infrastructure.

Herda said the existing electric substations are aging and suffer from a lack of maintenance and spare parts, causing them to break down or not operate at full capacity. He said the new substations will enhance the ability to supply power across southern Iraqi Maysan Province encompassing the area north of Basrah and east to the Iran-Iraq border.

“These projects are important because in all areas of Maysan there are problems with the transmission lines and substations that the people rely on for power,” said Herda, whose office is part of the Gulf Region South district of the Corps of Engineers. “The new substations will provide increased transmission capacity and the up-to-date equipment should provide reliable service for many years to come.”

The projects improve distribution capacity rather than provide additional power, Herda explained. “The purpose of a substation is to step down electric current from high voltage transmission lines to lower voltage lines, and then send the lower voltage electric power out to users in the neighborhoods,” he said.

“These projects will provide more reliable power to homes and business in the region, benefiting more than 785,000 residents,” said an Iraqi deputy resident engineer in the Basrah Office.

Read the rest here.