Siemens AG and Egypt’s Orascom Co. SAE are rebuilding a large gas power plant in Baiji in Northern Iraq that was crippled by Islamist insurgents.
When up and running again, the facility will have a combined capacity of 1.6 gigawatts, sufficient to supply thousands of homes in the Salahuddin province as well the nation’s largest oil refinery, the German gas turbine maker said on Monday.
In 2015, Iraqi militias wrestled back control of the power plant from the so-called Islamic State, but not before insurgents had damaged infrastructure. Baiji is approximately 155 miles (249 kilometers) north of the capital Baghdad.
Siemens is seeking to expand its business in war-torn Iraq and has so far constructed 700 megawatts of power capacity in the country, the company said.
Rapid global development of renewable energy has eroded sales of the Munich-based engineer’s gas turbine business, a former flagship unit. The company may be considering its sale, people familier with the matter said in June.
