Shanghai Electric Group, a manufacturer and supplier of power generation and industrial equipment, has donated 40,000 pieces of surgical masks to employees of Shanghai Electric’s Wassit Thermal Power Plant, a power station in Iraq, in response to the outbreak of COVID-19
“The epidemic situation is gradually improving inside China, but the number of cases is still surging in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East,” said Bian Changzheng, commercial counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Iraq.
The Wassit Thermal Power Plant has implemented a series of on-site infection risk management and control measures to protect staff while working on-site since January this year.
“The pandemic has imposed unprecedented pressure on the health systems across the region, and the Chinese Embassy in Iraq is providing medical aid by financing epidemic prevention materials and transferring medical experts to Iraq,” Bian remarked.
Located in the central Iraq’s Wassit province, south of the city of Kut and about 120km southeast of Baghdad, the Wassit plant has four units with a generating capacity of 330MW each and two with a 610MW capacity each. With all six units being grid-connected and put into commercial operation in 2015, the plant has now been providing an overall output of 56 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per day, accounting for 30 per cent of Iraq’s national power generation and 70 per cent of Baghdad’s power consumption at peak time.
“Leveraging the project's positive momentum, the plant is established hand in hand with the ecological conservation and economic development. It has also played an essential role in the social development of the region, with Shanghai Electric pledging to help the local community by improving education, health, infrastructure and the overall lifestyle of the region,” said He Zhuang of Shanghai Electric, the project manager of Wassit Thermal Power Plant.
