Posted on 10/03/2008 4:18:08 PM PDT by SandRat
CAMP TAJI — Residents are slowly returning to the city of Sab al Bour, northwest of Baghdad. But they are coming back to homes with barely enough power to run their air conditioners, a necessity in the stifling heat of Iraq.
Sab al Bour was once a thriving city of almost 200,000 residents, but criminal violence made the city a ghost town by 2006, chasing out all but approximately 20,000.
“Getting electricity back to the town is a necessity, and it will give the people a reason to come back to their homes,” said Capt. Mark Gillman, a native of Las Vegas, Nev., and engineer assigned to the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.
Gillman visited the Sab al Bour station, Sept. 27, to test the new 33 kV line.
“If we flip the switches and nothing happens, then that is a success,” he said.
The switches were flipped. Nothing happened when the first one was flipped, but the second switch flipped the breakers.
Employees at the station assured Gillman the problems were caused by trees entangled in the power lines and it would be fixed.
Once complete the new electric line and substations will provide reliable power to the entire city for approximately eight to 10 hours a day. This is an improvement from the four to six hours they currently receive, and almost three times the amount residents in Baghdad receive.
“The best part will be that the city’s key facilities will have power 24 hours a day,” Gilman said.
Electricity drives all other essential services. People can’t irrigate their fields without it as it powers the pumps which give them water, he said.
The 33 kV line will provide power to all of Sab al Bour. Right now residents get their power through the Taji Market substation, nearly 15 km, or about nine miles away from an 11 kV line.
The 11 kV line is only meant to provide power up to five to eight kilometers, or about three to five miles, said Gilman. This causes severe power shortages for everyone in Sab al Bour.
“This is truly the driving force for all of our other projects in the area,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Mackey, a native of San Bernardino, Calif., and commander of 2nd Squadron 14th Cavalry Regiment, “Strykehorse,” 2nd SBCT.
Getting the city’s electricity back on line is a saga which began in 2005.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers first recognized the problem and began work building a substation. It was finished a year later, but violence in the area prevented further work to connect the substation to any power lines.
USACE abandoned the project, but it was picked up again by 1st Cavalry Division in 2006, but once again violence caused a halt in the project.
“Now that this is a much safer area, we can effectively pick up this project and ensure completion,” said Gillman.
Gillman said the equipment which was damaged by violence is getting fixed and the project should be completed later this year.
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