BAIJI, Iraq -- Plumes of thick black smoke billowed from the Baiji power station, where a contingent of U.S. soldiers craned their necks and tried to count the long columns of soot shooting into the sky. Three? Four? No, five, there were definitely five. Dirty-faced and sweating in the mid-afternoon heat, the soldiers bobbed their helmets in agreement and beamed.
Five spewing smokestacks meant all but one of the steam-powered units at the power station were operational. And that meant Baghdad, 125 miles to the south, was having a good power day because the Baiji station supplies more than one third of the capital's electricity.
The massive steam-generated power plant outside of Baiji in Iraq is undergoing repairs.
(Jackie Spinner -- The Washington Post)
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"Back in February, we'd come over this bend just hoping to see some smoke," said Capt. David Unger, the electricity adviser for the Army's 1st Infantry Division.
U.S. reconstruction authorities have poured more than $200 million into the power station in a race to bring more electricity to Iraq.
Both the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Army Corps of Engineers have huge restoration projects underway within the complex, which is a self-contained compound located between miles of blowing sand and ragtag farmland on the banks of the Euphrates River.
The Baiji power station can produce more electricity than any plant in the country, but even here, progress is measured one megawatt at a time. The steam-powered units should be producing up to 1,300 megawatts, which is enough power for about 4 million households. Instead, the plant ekes out 510 megawatts a day. That, however, is 50 megawatts more than the plant produced before the beginning of the war last year.
"This number is going up, but it's very small," said Basem Janabi, a senior manager at the plant "The main goal is not to increase capacity. The main thing is to keep up the load until next year, when we will have more stability."
The story of Baiji helps explain why power generation remains one of the most vexing reconstruction challenges in Iraq.
U.S. engineers who arrived to repair the plant found it was barely holding together, the result of 13 years of economic sanctions against Iraq. Because many parts of the plant were in disrepair, the engineers have had to focus on keeping things from falling further apart instead of adding crucial generation machinery. But security threats have made it difficult to bring in parts. Fuel shortages have hampered production. Iraqi engineers have been reluctant to take equipment off-line for repairs because the plant isn't producing enough power as it is.
"It is not for the lack of determination under some very austere conditions," said Lt. Col. Jeff Ogden, director of the Army Corps' electrical restoration program. "This is a combat zone, and there is still considerable insurgent activity. It has been difficult to obtain all the materials required where and when you need them. This obviously has a great impact on your construction schedule."
Though Iraq has more power than it did before the war, Baghdad has suffered. The capital had a steady and sufficient flow of electricity under President Saddam Hussein, who supplied the capital at the expense of the rest of the country. National levels currently hover around 5,300 megawatts a day, far short of the 6,000 megawatt goal that U.S. authorities wanted by June and not nearly enough to supply all of Iraq.
Many Baghdad residents blame the now-defunct U.S. occupation authority for the shortage.
"What do the Americans do for us? Nothing," said Sanaa Addallatif, 49, a resident of the wealthy Monsour neighborhood of Baghdad. "If they give the Iraqi people electricity and water, all the Iraqi people will love America."
Addallatif said her daughters, college students, have been unable to prepare for their exams because there is no power at night to provide light for them to study. Her emergency generator has broken three times, requiring the family to spend $700 to fix it.
