Shadman thesis 2021

Options for Renewable Energy Support
Mechanisms for the Kurdistan Region- Iraq
Submitted by:
Shadman Shukry, Saeed
Matriculation Number: 542374
MEng-Thesis submitted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
“Master of Engineering (MEng) in Energy and Environmental Management”
Supervisors:
1. Dipl.-Ing Wulf Boie
2. Prof. Dr. Bernd Möller
Energy and Environmental Management
International Institute of Management
University of Flensburg, Germany

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Table of Contents
List of Observations ........................................................................................................................iv
List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................v
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................vi
List of Equation ...............................................................................................................................vi
List of Units ....................................................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgement........................................................................................................................viii
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................ix
1 Introduction............................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background....................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Scope and limitation of the Study.................................................................................... 4
1.3 Significance of the study .................................................................................................. 4
1.4 Main Objective................................................................................................................. 5
1.4.1 Specific Objectives .................................................................................................... 5
2 Research Questions:................................................................................................................ 5
3 Methodology: .......................................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Research Relevant Data ................................................................................................... 6
3.2 Data Analysis and Interpretation ..................................................................................... 7
3.3 Desk Research and Finalization of Modeling ................................................................... 7
4 Current situation of energy ..................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Extract and exploration process..................................................................................... 11
4.2 Oil ................................................................................................................................... 12
4.3 Gas.................................................................................................................................. 13
4.4 Policy and Legal Frameworks for Energy ....................................................................... 14
4.4.1 The Law of Oil and Gas............................................................................................ 14
4.4.2 The Investment law for Kurdistan Region .............................................................. 15
4.5 Energy Related Institutions............................................................................................ 17
4.5.1 Ministry of Electricity.............................................................................................. 17

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4.5.2 Directorate of Renewable Energy........................................................................... 18
4.5.3 Ministry of Natural Resource.................................................................................. 18
4.5.4 Ministry of agriculture and water Resource........................................................... 19
4.6 Electricity Sector in Kurdistan Region ............................................................................ 19
4.6.1 Electricity supply..................................................................................................... 19
4.6.2 Electricity Generation ............................................................................................. 20
4.6.3 Electricity Demand.................................................................................................. 21
4.7 Electricity Network System ............................................................................................ 25
4.7.1 Transmission ........................................................................................................... 25
4.7.2 System Reliability.................................................................................................... 29
4.8 Distribution..................................................................................................................... 31
4.8.1 Assessment of the Network.................................................................................... 32
4.8.2 System Reliability.................................................................................................... 34
5 The status quo of renewable energy in Kurdistan region ..................................................... 35
5.1 Renewable Resource Potential ...................................................................................... 36
5.1.1 Hydro....................................................................................................................... 37
5.1.2 Wind........................................................................................................................ 40
5.1.3 Solar Energy ............................................................................................................ 43
5.2 Options for the sustainable and resilient development of the energy system in
Kurdistan ................................................................................................................................... 45
5.2.1 Advanced Energy System for Kurdistan.................................................................. 47
6 Modeling the Electricity System in Kurdistan........................................................................ 48
6.1 Employment of the Scenario.......................................................................................... 48
6.2 Current account.............................................................................................................. 48
6.2.1 Resource Available.................................................................................................. 48
6.2.2 Refinery and Export ................................................................................................ 49
6.2.3 Electricity Dispatching............................................................................................. 49
6.2.4 Plant availability...................................................................................................... 49
6.2.5 Plant Efficiency........................................................................................................ 50
6.2.6 Existing Power Plants.............................................................................................. 50

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6.2.7 Energy Loss.............................................................................................................. 51
6.2.8 Energy Cost Estimation........................................................................................... 52
6.3 Reference Scenario ........................................................................................................ 52
6.3.1 Proposed and Committed Power Generation ........................................................ 52
6.3.2 Forecasting the Growth in Demand........................................................................ 54
6.4 Alternative Renewable Scenario.................................................................................... 55
6.5 Modeling Result discussion............................................................................................ 57
6.5.1 Demand Growth...................................................................................................... 57
6.5.2 Primary Energy Supply............................................................................................ 58
6.5.3 Final Electricity Supply ............................................................................................ 58
6.6 Assessment of Alternative Scenarios............................................................................. 60
6.6.1 Cost of Generation.................................................................................................. 62
7 Assessment of renewable energy options for Kurdistan ...................................................... 63
7.1 Existing Support Mechanism for Private Generation .................................................... 64
7.2 Criteria for the Renewable Energy Options ................................................................... 65
7.3 Barriers to Renewable energy Deployment in Kurdistan Region .................................. 66
7.4 Solution and options ...................................................................................................... 68
7.4.1 Feed-in Tariff........................................................................................................... 70
7.4.2 Tradable green certificate (TGCs) ........................................................................... 71
7.4.3 Tendering system.................................................................................................... 71
7.4.4 Tax credits............................................................................................................... 71
7.4.5 Kurdistan Case ........................................................................................................ 73
8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 75
9 Recommendation .................................................................................................................. 77
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 78
Annexes......................................................................................................................................... 81

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List of Observations
PB Parsons Brinckerhoff
ENDP Electricity Network Development Plant
KRG Kurdistan Region Government
HTLS High Temperature Low Sag Electricity Conductor
HFO Heavy Fuel Oil
HTLS High Temperature Low Sag Electricity Conductor
MONR Ministry of Natural Resource
MOE Ministry of Electricity
MPES Master Plan for the Electricity Sector
RDSK Regional Development Strategy for Kurdistan Region

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List of Figures
Figure 1 Kurdistan Region in Iraq.................................................................................................... 2
Figure 2 Master Plan Construction Goals, 2012-2017.................................................................... 3
Figure 3, Average of Annual Electricity Consumption Growth per Capita ..................................... 3
Figure 4 Research Process .............................................................................................................. 6
Figure 5, Annual Oil Production, Consumption, and Export......................................................... 10
Figure 6, Oil Consumption versus 17% Share ............................................................................... 11
Figure 7, Oil and Gas Extracting Fields.......................................................................................... 12
Figure 8, Oil and Gas Infrastructure Assets in Kurdistan Region.................................................. 14
Figure 9, Electricity Generation Growth in Kurdistan................................................................... 17
Figure 10, Electricity Mixed Generation in Kurdistan................................................................... 19
Figure 11, Demand, Supply and Load Shedding for Electricity in Kurdistan............................... 21
Figure 12, Average and Peak Electricity Demand for Kurdistan Region in 2013.......................... 22
Figure 13 Consumption Share by Number of Consumer.............................................................. 23
Figure 14 Consumption Share by Electricity Consumed............................................................... 23
Figure 15 Proposed 2015 Kurdistan Transmission System.......................................................... 27
Figure 16 Transmission Voltage Profile after Proposed Plan ....................................................... 29
Figure 17 Comparison of Load flow Rate among Three Years..................................................... 30
Figure 18 Kurdistan Network Structure........................................................................................ 32
Figure 19 Voltage Drop on 11 kV Feeders in each Governorate of Kurdistan............................. 33
Figure 20, Micro Hydro Scheme under Construction ................................................................... 35
Figure 21 Masts of Wind and Solar Data in Kurdistan.................................................................. 36
Figure 22 Potential Sites for Hydropower and Wind Data Mast in Kurdistan.............................. 38
Figure 23 Bekhal Hydro Power in Kurdistan ................................................................................. 39
Figure 24 Deralok Hydropower Project in Kurdistan.................................................................... 40
Figure 25 Monthly Avg. Wind Speed at 50 m high in Kurdistan.................................................. 41
Figure 26 Wind Map of Kurdistan................................................................................................. 42
Figure 27 Kurdistan Solar Radiation among Global Radiation...................................................... 43
Figure 28, Monthly Mean Radiation in Kurdistan......................................................................... 44
Figure 29, Monthly Sunshine Duration in Kurdistan..................................................................... 45
Figure 30 Examples of System Behavior....................................................................................... 46
Figure 31 Design View of the Proposed Shaqlawa Wind Farm .................................................... 55
Figure 32, Overall Growth in Demand .......................................................................................... 57
Figure 33 Contribution of Primary Energy Supply by Technology................................................ 58
Figure 34 Final Electricity Supply by share of Technology........................................................... 59
Figure 35 Final Electricity Supply .................................................................................................. 60
Figure 36 Primary Energy Input in the Alternative Scenario ........................................................ 61

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Figure 37 Final Electricity Supply in the Alternative Scenario Compared to Reference Scenario 62
Figure 38 Generation Cost Comparison....................................................................................... 63
Figure 39, Renewable Energy diffusion. ....................................................................................... 69
Figure 40 Snapshot of Electricity System Modeling in LEAP......................................................... 83
Figure 41, Single Diagram for the Network System of Kurdistan................................................. 84
List of Tables
Table 1 Annual Oil Production, Consumption, and Export........................................................... 10
Table 2 Existing Power Stations.................................................................................................... 20
Table 3 Increasing the Number of Consumer............................................................................... 24
Table 4 Number of the Consumer Sector per Governorate ........................................................ 25
Table 5 Transmission Zones......................................................................................................... 26
Table 6, Proposed 400 kV Line and Substation by 2015............................................................... 27
Table 7, Type 132kV Substation under Construction. .................................................................. 28
Table 8 the overload of 11 kV and 33 kV in winter 2013.............................................................. 34
Table 9 Hydrological Condition Probability Distribution ............................................................. 39
Table 10 Resource Potential and the Cost.................................................................................... 49
Table 11 Hydro plant Efficiency Corresponding the Input Energy ............................................... 50
Table 12 Existing Power plants in Kurdistan................................................................................. 51
Table 13 Distribution and Transmission Loss for Electricity Dispatching in Kurdistan................. 51
Table 14 Fixed and Variable (O&M) Cost Estimation for Existing Power Plants .......................... 52
Table 15 Committed and proposed Power Plants until 2020....................................................... 53
Table 16, Estimated Demand Growth until 2023 ......................................................................... 54
Table 17 Proposed and Committed Renewable Generation in the Alternative Scenario............ 56
Table 18 Barriers for Renewable Energy in Kurdistan Region...................................................... 66
Table 19 Some Encouragement policies for Deploying Renewable Energy................................. 73
Table 20, List of the Name of Responder to this Study. .................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
List of Equation
Pw= (A× ρ/a) ηw × E …………………. (1).............................................................................................. 42
Ps = (365×A×ſ) x ηs /103
………………………… ( 2) ............................................................................... 44

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List of Units
Bcm Barrel cubic meter
BOE Barrel Oil Equivalent
Bpd Barrel Per Day
GW Gigawatt
Km kilometer
GWh Gigawatt
ID Iraqi Dinar
kV kilovolt
MW Mega watt
MVA Mega Volt Ampere
MMBTU Million British thermal unit
m a.s.l. Meter at sea level

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Acknowledgement
Prior thanksgiving is for God and then to Kurdistan Regional Government for giving me
opportunity by their scholarship that enable me to complete this study. My sincere gratitude
also is expressed to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) for managing this
scholarship.
My grateful appreciation goes to Interdisciplinary Institute for Environmental-, Social- and
Human Studies in the Department of Energy and Environmental Management, at University of
Flensburg for giving me the acceptance to complete Master studies in (Energy and
Environmental Management in Developing Countries) and to all lecturers who taught me,
representing in Prof. Dr. August Schläpfe who was the chair of the course (I will never forget
your first call to me in this regard) and then Prof. Dr. Bernd Möller who came after to take the
responsibility.
My special thanks go to my supervisor Dipl.-Ing Wulf Boie who enhanced me by his guidance
and advices during preparation of this research study. His dedicated supports participated to be
prepared.
I take also opportunity to represent my thanks to the social and culture tutor representing by
Mrs. Kathrina Schipper in the beginning and then Mrs. Eva Maria Kuntzmann with her
colleagues. You provided me much of assists in finding accommodation and other help through
the honorable members of the mentor family program.
I am heartily thankful to the staff members of the departments and directorates in the Ministry
of Electricity in Kurdistan Region. Because of limitation, the names of all of you cannot be
mentioned here. Your assistance in this regard is obvious on this work.
The most grateful thanks go to my family, my wife and my daughter. You suffered a lot with me.
Without your support, this study has not been completed. As well, my special thanks to the
both families of me and of my wife. The efforts and the helps of you in this regard made this
study happening.
Eventually, I hereby would like to express a great thanks to my fellow student from almost all
over the world. Spending the time with you provided me a lot.

ix
Executive Summary
Kurdistan is taking step toward establishment and stabilization regarding energy availability
after an age of the deficiency of energy sources. This region is opening up toward the oil wealth
so that it gives the region an opportunity to pass this period and become secure with regard to
energy existence. This transition encompasses all energy fields starting from extracting the oil
and refining, exporting to electricity production. Therefore, setting up a good energy system is
an urgent necessity for Kurdistan in this stage.
Electricity system, which this research solely concentrates on it, should be established also on
the strong constituents. The System being influenced by some certain conditions is exposed to
lose the characteristics of sustainability and robustness. Hence, this system should be enriched
through diversification of the energy sources and variety in energy technology so that it can be
involved by the elements of the resilience. Concentration on fossil fuel and neglecting other
renewable energy resources is not justified according to socio- ecological logic. Thus, policy
recovery should be followed as a crucial process for energy system. Accordingly, this study is a
modest primitive attempt for this purpose.
The research tries firstly to present the energy resource available of fossil fuel and the
exploration process to what extent is in progress. As well, all issues related to this resource
have been discussed regarding the production, consumption and export as well as the
circumstances of refinery process. In addition, the troubles on the issues of oil have been
mentioned which the region faced from the Iraqi central authority. Moreover, this section
points to the construction of a pipeline for exporting the oil of the region.
Then, the research passes on the existing institutions relevant to energy sectors in this regard
ministry of electricity and ministry of natural resources are the two available-main foundations
as well as other indirect or partial involved institution. In addition, the unavailability of specific
framework for energy in the region is mentioned here. However, there is some law and
practices can be employed beneficially for the energy projects.
The current situation of electricity system also is dealt with by the research. Accordingly, the
discussion conducts the available installed capacity in the region, which is around 3500 MW,
and the transmission system regarding the loss and capability, as well as distribution system.
The research found that the system has a number of shortages concerning the capability and
also almost high level of loss. Nevertheless, there is ongoing process for rehabilitation of the
electricity network system and installation of a huge number of power plants which will provide
the region with surplus of electricity in the near future.

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This study has found that Kurdistan region has abundant of potential from solar, wind and
hydro energy resource. In this regard, it has investigated the existing data and information
gathered from available measurements and studies conducted for that purpose. Thus, it has
estimated annual potential reserve for solar of 296 thousand GWh, for wind of 2770 thousand
GWh and for hydro 8355 GWh. Based on this potential, the study proposes further involvement
of renewable energy in the energy mixed supply for obtaining sustainable and resilient system.
This system characterizes by efficiency, adaptability and cohesion as well as diversity (Fiksel,
2003).
The modeling for the electricity system has been carried out by depending on Long Range
Energy Alternative Planning (LEAP) software. The reason for using this program is related to
simplicity of this software and widely use for this kind of simulation (Charles Heaps, 2008).
Depending on the available plans for electricity sector of Kurdistan and the other obtained data,
the reference scenario was implemented for years from 2013 to 2030. Consequently, the
results from simulation indicate the tendency toward much conventional energy production for
alleviating significant increasing demand. As well, an assumed alternative scenario was
developed through involving a portion of renewable. The comparison between the two
scenarios shows that the renewable energy is not cost effective; therefore it should be
enhanced by special supporting mechanisms.
For this purpose, four widely used mechanisms have been discussed among available
dependable ways for supporting the renewable energy; feed-in tariff, tradable green certificate,
tendering system and tax credits. But for Kurdistan, other instruments, as a preliminary stage,
have been recommended and these are; grants, subsidy, net metering and so on.
Eventually, some recommendations have been presented for the sake of more development for
renewable energy in Kurdistan. This starts from household level by giving opportunity of access
to the system through net metering policy. And then, further steps should be taken by financial
support paving the way for investment in the renewable energy and flourishing renewable
energy market.

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1 Introduction
The renewable resource as a dependent source of energy is a desire which is being profusely
emphasized worldwide in the time being. The developing countries, as well, have addressed
significantly the benefit from this source for the energy due to highly increase in energy
demand as a consequence of the large development in industrialization and economic growth.
In addition, these countries have been affected, as their ancestor (development countries), by
the bad impacts of fossil fuel due to its burden on environment. Therefore, they have started
also to address the reduction of dependency on fossil fuel by adopting a number of available
options for supporting development of renewable energy in the country.
Kurdistan region in Iraq is taking step toward development economically and industrially as well
as with respect to the oil wealth. This situation has increased electricity demand dramatically
forcing the government to build further conventional power plants in the future.
This descriptive and evaluative study is attempt for addressing the energy system in Kurdistan
according to energy resource available, the status of electricity production system and how
takes steps to future. Then, based on that, this study tries to suggest some mechanism for
developing renewable energy in Kurdistan. For this purpose, it depends on, firstly the data
gathered by author from interviews during preparing this study, and secondly information and
data from (MPES, 2009), (Addendum 1, 2011), (ENDP, 2013, 2014), and thirdly from reviewing
some literature.
1.1 Background
Kurdistan is a part of the big Kurdistan which is located in the north of Iraq and it is officially
called Kurdistan region of Iraq. The majority of its population is Kurdish people with some
ethnic group like; Assyrians, Turkish and Arab. Its area is around 40,000 km2
and populations is
almost more than 5 million (KRG webpsite, 2014) distributed over three main big cities which
are; Sulamaniyah, Erbil, and Duhok. Bear in mind, there are other cities and areas in Iraq with
the most majority of Kurdish people. The more obvious one is the city of Kirkuk. KRG has had
dispute for a while with the Iraqi central government over how to retrieve them to the region.
However, this likelihood seems going to happen in the time of preparing this study, because of
the ongoing events.
Erbil as the capital of Kurdistan has coordination of 36.2 ᵒN Lat, 44 ᵒE Lon and altitude of 453 m
a.s.l. . Nevertheless, the altitude increases in the case of further going to the north or to the
east, because of the existence of mountains. Kurdistan region has been surrounded to the

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north by Turkey, to the east by Iran, to the west by Syria and south is the contact border with
federal Iraq, see figure (1).
Figure 1 Kurdistan Region in Iraq
Source: Based on (Neal Rauhauser, 2013)
Following the first gulf war in 1991, Kurdish people in Iraq solved a part of its conflict on
recognition of identity, which they have had from a long history with the successive ruling
regimes. Thus, Saddam’s regime withdrew from some areas of the Kurd resulting in the
establishment of their own administration which consists of a Pearlman and a government.
Then, the second gulf war caused of the creation of a new federal system in Iraq. Kurdish
government was officially recognized under the name of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
This entity comprises the three mentioned cities with their districts struggling to involve other
parts.
The successive wars in Iraq caused to the power generation shortage in the country. Kurdistan
also has had a quota in this lack, though the situation is much better in this regard. This
shortage exists to the time being. Despite the existence of the significant amount of primary

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energy, especially fossil fuel, the country still has not been able to exploit it for power
generating in order to alleviate the increasing demand. Nevertheless, it has looked like that Iraq
was on the verge of building a significant number of power plants in its future plan, as can be
seen in figure (2).
Figure 2 Master Plan Construction Goals, 2012-2017
Source: (Verity Ratcliffe, 2012)
GDP, as an indicator for economic growth, has shown unpredictable increase recently in
Kurdistan. According to ministry of planning, GDP had been increased in the growth rate of
68.9% from 2004 to 2008. This also reflected on GDP per capita, which increased from ID
524,426 to ID 4,740,000 (RDSK, 2012). GDP increasing, as well, has affected the increase of the
electricity consumption per capita. Figure (3) illustrates previous and expected increase per
capita of electricity.
Figure 3, Average of Annual Electricity Consumption Growth per Capita
Source: (RDSK, 2012)

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Kurdistan has seen a huge investment of electricity sector, because of the circumstance of the
increased demand on electricity recently. The size of the investments reached to $5 billion by
2013 and it is expected to rise to $7 billion by 2016. Although, the investment previously had
concentrated on generation, $ 1 billion is expected to be related to the transmission sector in
the future investments (The Review Kurdistan Region of Iraq, 2013)
1.2 Scope and limitation of the Study
This research tries to address the renewable energy subjects aiming much investigation for
developing this resource in Kurdistan. Thus, the study addresses the condition of energy system
and especially electricity system through more than one aspect in order to justify the
importance of the existence of renewable technology in this system and capability of this
system to adopt a supporting mechanism for renewable energy. In this regard, the study seeks
to avoid itself from more technical detail during discussing the kinds of renewable technology
(solar, wind and hydro) so that it wouldn't fall into a useless prolongation. However, the
research represents an attempt to facilitate the ways for further work in this regard.
The study depends on other sources for more of the economic variables, because of the limited
time. Therefore, it is expected that if sensitive economic analysis is implemented from different
aspects, the renewable energy will achieve better results of the comparison of all consequences
and effects accompanied the primary resource.
1.3 Significance of the study
Importance of this study appears, on the one hand, in presenting an overview for planning
process in Kurdistan regarding energy system and as well, it is one of the exceptional attempts
in Kurdistan, on the other hand, that has handled the renewable energy subject in such way.
This research, whereas, avoids itself to address renewable energy only from the angle of
available potential of resource, which can be used, but it goes beyond giving solution on how
can it be used and developed.
As well, this study participate in the efforts for reducing the external effects occurred by using
non-renewable energy, which started also to influence the purity of life in Kurdistan.
Nevertheless, these effects are expected to add weight to the balance for the favor of
renewable options versus fossil fuel, if it is taken into consideration, such as in developing
countries. The external effects are caused by the environmental harmful gases released from
using fossil fuel. Indeed, the optimization condition for energy system is when it reduces these
gases as much as possible. However, the used software (LEAP) has ability to estimate bad
impacts of released gases.

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Additionally, this research may offer an approach to activate the mobilization of the energy
market that achieves the social benefit and more dependence on renewable energy. Moreover,
it provides the facilitations for the process of privatization of electricity sector which the
authority permanently gives statements in this regard.
1.4 Main Objective
- Suggesting a supporting mechanism for enhancing renewable energy in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
1.4.1 Specific Objectives
 A business as usual scenario and a renewable energy-related scenario have been
developed and compared.
 The required developments have been identified in the government's energy policy (for
instance privatization in electricity sector) for adopting suggested mechanism.
 The barriers for renewable energy and suggested mechanisms have been addressed.
2 Research Questions:
The main questions of this research are:
How does the government’s policy address the role of renewable energy?
How does the government identify the barriers in front of development of renewable energy in
the region?
What is the actual current status of electricity sector according to?
 Supply and demand.
 Available grid system.
 Existing challenges.
 Future forecasts for electricity demand in the region.
 Existing actual potential of solar wind and Hydro.
How is the future plan of Kurdistan regional government regarding?
 The role of renewable energy in this plan.
 Increasing supply and demand.
How are the existing attitudes toward privatization in electricity sector?
• Has the government taken serious steps in its claims regarding this concept?

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• Is there any private power generation in the region? If it is available,
• Which kind of policy does link private power producer with the government?
• What kind of outlooks do investors and entrepreneurs have regarding the privatization in
electric sector?
• Do the investors have readiness to invest in renewable energy technology?
3 Methodology:
The methodology of preparation this study has passed three interactive - activity levels
according to the time stages, as can be seen in the model diagram (figure 4) below:
Figure 4 Research Process
Source: Author 2014
3.1 Research Relevant Data
The author conducted to visit some departments and institutional relevant to this research
study for gathering and obtaining necessary qualitative and quantitative data and related
information. As well, there have been a number of interviews conducted for variety of
stakeholders and persons who at the responsible position, for instance, the minister consultant,
head of directorates and entrepreneur of renewable energy , in order to know considered

7
destinations regarding electricity sector and particularly renewable energy. Also, while author
was intending these places and doing the interviews, the questions involved in this research
were inquired. The intended places were mostly the general directorates belong to ministry of
electricity and also the renewable energy departments in Sulaimanyah and Erbil. Additionally,
for this purpose, the author has visited the universities frequently to evaluate the existing
prospects inside this foundation in this regard. As well, a company was intended by the author
who is competent in the marketing and installation in the field of solar panels and micro wind
turbine.
However, the following are the name of the most places intended by the author for the sake of
this research and a list of the name of interviewee is in the annex:
 Ministry of Electricity, the office of Mr. Minister Consultant’s Office.
 General Directorate of Planning.
 General Directorate of Generation.
 General Directorate of Transmission and Distribution.
 Most departments in the General Directorate of Controlling and Dispatching.
 General Department of Renewable Energy.
 Directorate of Renewable Energy in Sulaimanyah
 University of Sulaimanyah, Electricity Department.
 Green Power Company.
3.2 Data Analysis and Interpretation
Necessary analysis has been performed for obtained data from the intended institutions and
the other resource such as meteonorm (Global Meteorological Database for Engineers,
planners and Education). The beneficiary data for this research was selected among abundant
of provided data and formulated in the exile sheets. Later on, some of them for graphical
representation in this research were used and the other data were entered to the LEAP, as the
dependable software for the electricity system modeling. As well, interpretation for some data
was done based on the other relevant indications to fulfill the missing data and the formulating
can be completed.
3.3 Desk Research and Finalization of Modeling
The primary sources used, as mentioned previously, for the desk researching are (MPES, 2009),
(Addendum 1, 2011), and (ENDP, 2013, 2014). These sources were used for doing a review for
electricity system in Kurdistan with regard the future shape of this system. Creditably, a number
of precise information, which couldn’t be obtained during field research, was found from these
sources.

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On the other hand, the research depends on some literatures and sources available on the
renewable energy and the ways of deployment. It is obvious that many sources published for
this purpose add considerable momentum in this regard. Hence, the author significantly has
taken advantage from some of these sources for the selection of a proper option among the
mechanisms worldwide available for supporting renewable energy. These are the existing
references that appear during reviewing this research.
The analysis of the results obtained from simulation in LEAP, as a base for energy system
modeling, has been employed for addressing the direction of electricity plan steps. As well, this
was helpful for determining the status of renewable energy and the extent of being an
alternative according to the cost effective predominance. Moreover, the comparison was
conducted between the reference and the renewable energy scenarios in light of these results
showing the difficulty of the condition for renewable energy.

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4 Current situation of energy
Kurdistan region is located in Iraq and it is obvious that Iraq is considered as one of the rich
countries with fossil fuel. Although, the process of oil exploration is new in Kurdistan, it has
started recently, currently significant amount of oil and its derivative products are being
extracted.
According to KRG Ministry of Natural Resource, oil reserve in Kurdistan is estimated to be 45
billion barrel and natural gas is 5.67 billion cubic meters. Since 2003, the process of oil
exploration has existence in Kurdistan. In 2009, oil extracting officially began and for today, oil
production has reached 200,000 barrel per day. In its newest declarations, KRG says that it aims
to increase oil production to 1 million barrel per day by 2015.
After the second gulf war and withdrawing Saddam's regime in 2003, the federal system of
government was chosen for Iraq. Consequently, according to its constitution, the regions and
governorates were allowed to explore and extract oil and gas in their areas. Thus, depending on
Art (111), (115) and (121) in the Iraq’s constitution, KRG has proceeded to explore oil by 2003.
Although conflict between federal government and KRG in this regard has existence and it is
continuous at the time of this writing, KRG insists on its rights concerning exploitation of oil.
The latest step of the KRG in this regard is construction of oil pipeline for exporting its oil
production to Turkey’s Ceyhan port on Mediterranean.
Besides exporting oil production, part of the production goes to the domestic consumption.
The sectors of electricity, industry and residential take most portion of this consumption. In
residential sector, the oil residuals as primary energy are mostly dependable for heating
purpose. In 2013, the internal consumption for Kurdistan region reached 309,758,231 barrel.
According to Iraqi constitution, Kurdistan region should have 17% of Iraq’s oil share, as it is for
other Iraq’s revenue. In 2013, the domestically used oil, which was 239,441,195 barrel, had
come from this share in the above mentioned figures of the barrels (MONR Annual Finantial
Report, 2013)
In 2007, the Kurdistan National Assembly – Iraq legislated oil and gas law in order to give a
legislative framework for exploration petroleum revenue in Kurdistan. However, because of
different explanation for the constitutional articles related to oil and gas revenue from federal
government side, the central government doesn't agree with KRG’s conduct in this regard and it
doesn’t give KRG property right to extract oil revenue which located in its areas. The latest
behavior regarding this tension was the cut of the 17% share for Kurdistan region from federal
government side at the time of preparing this study. Consequently, this attitude gave more

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inducement to KRG for exporting oil in 2014 in order to get its budget. Table (1) and figure (5)
show oil production, refine and export in Kurdistan region from 2003 until 2013.
Table 1 Annual Oil Production, Consumption, and Export
#
produced oil
(BOE)
Domestic
Consumption
(BOE)
exported
production
(BOE)
2003 395945 395117 0
2004 160599 160599 0
2005 367738 367738 0
2006 506269 505780 0
2007 1524211 1509808 0
2008 3117172 2773025 328708
2009 15689046 8781440 6870351
2010 27483775 25192063 2176791
2011 68449186 30870528 37242281
2012 76706152 51900881 24507213
2013 78463518 77718969 499723
Source: (MONR Report No.3,, 2013)
Figure 5, Annual Oil Production, Consumption, and Export
Source: (MONR Report No.3,, 2013)
During recent years, KRG always declares that they never were receiving their 17% annual share
from Iraq’s oil; therefore KRG was forced to recover this shortage through purchasing in
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Millions
BOE
production
supplies to Refineries
export

11
domestic market. The different between what KRG has received and consumed in recent years
and its right has been illustrates in figure (6).
Figure 6, Oil Consumption versus 17% Share
Source: Author 2014 based on (MONR Annual Finantial Report, 2013).
4.1 Extract and exploration process
The process of oil exploration and extraction is at the peak of its flourish at present in
Kurdistan. Many contracts with the number of international company in the oil field have been
established. These companies are working across the region according to a specified agreement
between regional government and them whereby they share the expenditures and revenues.
For this purpose the ministry of natural resource has distributed the region into over 60
extracting cantons and accordingly, exploration process is being done by these companies.
Thus, each one works in its share of cantons which is given by ministry of natural resource.
Figure (7) represents the map of the exploration fields and responsible companies in Kurdistan.
0
500000000
1E+09
1.5E+09
2E+09
2.5E+09
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
BOE
Iraq Consumption
Kurdistan Region
Consumption
17% share

12
Figure 7, Oil and Gas Extracting Fields
Source: (MONR website, 2014)
4.2 Oil
As it was mentioned oil production in Kurdistan today has reached more than 200,000 barrel
per day and this production is continuously in growing, as the responsible companies work on
developing the produced fields and exploring new fields. There are two main fields which are
now producing oil; one is called Twak and the production for this field already has reached to
120,021 barrels of oil per day according to DNO which is the extractor company of the field
(John Lee, 2014) . The other field is TaqTaq which produces 105,000 barrels of oil per day at
present (Addax Petroleum, 2014). However, still these fields are under development and have
to be appraised by drilling new wells. Beside these and for the sake of increasing production

13
which Kurdistan is able to give, there is continuous exploration in other fields and some of them
have started oil lifting.
Part of Kurdistan’s produced oil is delivered to its refineries which are two main refineries and
some small refineries and all are owned and operated by private sector. Kalak refinery with
capacity of 80,000 bpd is near Erbil city and the other one is located in Sulaimanyah province
with the capacity of 34000 bpd. Nevertheless, the capacities of these two refineries are
considered to be upgraded to 100,000 and 80,000 bpd respectively by 2014 (MONR website,
2014). However, all production of the refineries is for covering internal consumption at present.
The newly built pipeline with designed capability of 1 million barrel per day exports Kurdistan’s
oil to the international market. The construction of this pipeline was finished in the beginning of
2014 and it stretches from the south of Kurdistan at Taq Taq to Khurmala refinery and from
there to north where it links at turkey’s border with another line from Twak’s field. The joined
pipes deliver pumped oil to the port of Ceyhan on Mediterranean.
4.3 Gas
As oil, Kurdistan region holds a significant reserve of gas which estimated to be 5.67 bcm and
according to ministry of natural resources; it consists of around 3% of world’s gas. However, all
produced gases for now goes to domestic consumption which are the household used and an
estimated power generation of 3 GW. Nevertheless, ministry of natural resource claims that
Kurdistan region, besides covering another planned generation of 3 GW, will be able by 2016 to
export gas to global market (MONR website, 2014).
Kurdistan’s gas pipeline currently is used for transporting gas from the fields to the power
generation plants, which is around 206 Km. Construction work are proceeding so that other
parts will be built to export gas by 2016. Figure (8) shows the oil and gas fields, refineries and
pipelines in Kurdistan region.

14
Figure 8, Oil and Gas Infrastructure Assets in Kurdistan Region
Source: (MONR website, 2014)
4.4 Policy and Legal Frameworks for Energy
4.4.1 The Law of Oil and Gas
The constitution of Iraq is the main base for any legalized activity, at present, for Kurdistan as a
federal region of Iraq. After the fall of the Saddam’s regime in 2003, this constitution was
formulated and put in referendum process in 2005. The act 111, 112, 114,115 and 121 in this
constitution are the articles which are dealing with, namely, regulation of energy issue.
However, these articles concentrate especially on oil and gas as main primary energy of Iraq
without going much more in detail. They are only the base line about how these resources
should be distributed (Iraqi Constitution, 2005).
In the light of these provisions, Kurdistan National Assembly – Iraq issued the law of oil and gas
No. 22 in 2007, whereby Kurdistan region attempted to give a legal framework for the manner

15
of performance with energy sector in the region particularly oil and gas. This law consists of 61
articles which illustrates all detail about the extraction and exploration of oil and gas. It draws
in a comprehensive manner all steps from the procedure of contracting with explorer to how
the public advantage could be achieved by the resource. Also the law indicates all necessary
regulations in this regard like; the formation of competent institutes and organizations to take
care of marketing and managing the process.
But bear in mind that this law only deals with oil and gas and it doesn't belong to other primary
or secondary energy sectors. Nevertheless, the law is considered as an important breakthrough
toward legislation in the energy sector. In particular, the significant role within this law has
been given to private sector which helps for establishing more the principle of privatization.
In fact, “the oil and gas law aroused intense criticism from certain quarters within the central
government” (J.Zedalis, 2012) and this conflict, as it was mentioned previously, still has
existence. But, here the author excludes himself from going in detail within it, because the
detail of this argument between KRG and central government is concerned with the law and it
is not the subject of this writing.
4.4.2 The Investment law for Kurdistan Region
This is the law No. 4 in 2006 of Kurdistan National Assembly – Iraq. KRG through this law allows
private sector from inside and outside to invest in Kurdistan. At the same time this law is used
also for regulating the work of the investors in Kurdistan. Formulating this law is in a way that
gives significant opportunity to investor for investing in Kurdistan, as there are wide facilitations
in the law for working companies. For instance, here are some of these incentives;
- The foreign and inner investors are the same regarding the rights and the foreign
investors own the right of disposal for their projects.
- Exempting from all taxes and customs for 10 years, from the starting of project.
- “shortening the timeframes for license issuance” (Lockhart, 2014)
- Investors have all legal insurances regarding their capital such as the right of transition
in their capital in any time, having bank account in national or foreign currency and any
other rights concerning capital insurance for investors.
- Exemption from tax and custom tariff for vehicles, machinery and equipments which are
imported from abroad for the project.
- Project’s spare parts are exempted from 15% of tax and dues and also there is
exemption for five years for raw materials which is used for production by the project.
- Allocating land for investor and providing a wide facilitation in this regard (Law of
Investment, 2005).

16
Although, the investment law is a general law concerning investment in Kurdistan and it has not
been issued solely for the sake of energy sector, the law has been also employed by those
involved to invest in energy sector. Consequently, a number of projects concerned to energy
have been implemented in Kurdistan. For instance, in oil sector tow big refineries have been
built with capacity of around 200,000 bpd instead of some other small refineries. Indeed,
almost all domestic consumption is obtained from these refineries.
In electricity sector, there are four main generation plant in working at present with the
capacity of 2900 MW which consists almost 90% of Kurdistan’s electricity. In addition, there
were some small generation plants which had belonged to ministry of electricity, as the result
all of them handed over to private sector. After issuing the investment law, electricity
generation mainly occurred in the hand of private sector and actually all future generation
plants will be done also by this sector.
By following the situation in Kurdistan, it appears that among those projects which have been
implemented for producing electricity recently, no one of them unfortunately is depending on
renewable as primary energy. Except a few micro hydro projects, all giant projects are from
conventional fuel plants. Obviously, the power crisis on the hand, that Kurdistan had been
facing for a while before building these plants, and existence of abundant fossil fuel on the
other hand were the essential reasons for this situation.
Nevertheless, during author’s discussion with stakeholders in the ministry of electricity, the
author was informed that significant numbers of companies specialized in the renewable
energy sector have registered in order to implement related renewable projects. The lists of
company’s name and their specialists are in the hand of the author which will be mentioned in
the on-going chapters.
Energy investment in term of electricity producing in Kurdistan is growing as the result of
existence a law such as investment law. According to an interview with minister of electricity,
the volume of the investment for generation by 2013 was 5 billion US$ and this figure will rise
to 7 billion US$ by 2016. Consequently, Kurdistan will be able to export electricity to its
neighboring areas by 2015 (The Review Kurdistan Region of Iraq, 2013). Figure (9) shows the
boom of electricity generation in Kurdistan. Meanwhile, this growth is continuous; investment
in electricity lacks a law specified for this sector to put it within a legal framework.

17
Figure 9, Electricity Generation Growth in Kurdistan
Source: Author 2014, Based on Data from Ministry of Electricity
This argument bases upon the question, which author asked a number of the stakeholders in
the ministry of electricity, about the legal form of the regulation which organizes the
relationship between the electricity produce at present and in future. As the result, the
question couldn’t get a specific answer.
However, this talk doesn’t negate existence of the contract and availability of the specific
commitments between the parties. The agreement between the government and these
companies states that while they produce electricity, the government should carry the
responsibility of fuel provision and then purchasing the electricity. But, as it was previously
stated these procedures don’t rise to fixed legal framework so that the future contacts depend
on it.
4.5 Energy Related Institutions
Here, the meaning of institution is belong to those ministry or organizations which directly or
indirectly their activities serve the matter of energy.
4.5.1 Ministry of Electricity
This ministry was created according to Kurdistan National Assembly’s law No. 5 for the year of
2006. Before issuing this law, it was part of ministry of industry as a general directorate. From
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
MW

18
passing this law in Kurdistan’s parliament, all responsibility of the electricity sector were
delivered to ministry of electricity.
With respond to this law, the ministry of electricity was assigned to carry the liability of
electricity-related issues which are power generation, transmission and distribution. For this
purpose, the ministry has formed general department for each of generation, transmission and
distribution as well as one general department under the name of general directorate of
control and dispatch. The latest one has responsibility of regulating system load and monitoring
load in transmission lines and in the feeders.
Thus, the management of transmission and distribution of electricity still officially is in hand the
ministry of electricity as well as generation, although in reality the largest share of generation is
with private sector. This managing process finds itself in maintenance and replacement of lines,
substation and transformers.
4.5.2 Directorate of Renewable Energy
This directorate is a department belongs now to the general directorate of generation in the
ministry of electricity and it has its own director and staffs, although previously was
independent general directorate in the ministry. The department has responsibility of any
renewable- related issues of the ministry. It has supervised and implemented a number of
micro hydro projects in the past and now and also does the negotiations and preparations for
the future hydro plants with the related parties. Additionally, this department is doing the
management and data collection of wind and solar stations which have been installed in some
areas in Kurdistan.
4.5.3 Ministry of Natural Resource
As it appears from the name, all responsibility of the exploration and development for natural
resource such as hydrocarbons and mineral resources in Kurdistan region is given to this
ministry. In this mission, the ministry is backed up by the laws of 111, 112,115 and 121 in the
Iraqi constitution and also the law no. 22 in 2007 of KRG (MONR website, 2014). One of these
resources is fossil fuel which is the most obvious activity of this ministry at present.
Some of the commitments of this ministry, which it has committed to do regarding energy
sector, are like following:
- Rapidly developing oil and gas sector as well as other hydrocarbon resources.
- Providing domestic need and power generation with fuel.
- upgrading export to its highest level (MONR website, 2014).

19
4.5.4 Ministry of agriculture and water Resource
Although, this ministry does not have direct activity concerning energy sector, it jointly with the
ministry of electricity are doing the proposal and feasibility study for constructing hydro
schemes of types run of river and dam. While the author was interviewing stakeholder in the
renewable energy department, he was told the two parties now are busy with preparing
suitable form of the contract for future-planned hydro schemes.
4.6 Electricity Sector in Kurdistan Region
4.6.1 Electricity supply
Electricity mixed supply in Kurdistan region is consisting only of two resources, which are hydro
and thermal generation. As, it can be seen in figure (10) with development in thermal
generation production after 2008, the share of hydro has been decreasing, while previously was
sole source for electricity. Of course, there are two reasons behind this; the first is that
Kurdistan has two hydro storage plants and the variation of the availability of these power plant
with the type of hydrological year on the one hand (MPES, 2009)and the obsolescence of these
hydro plants on the other hand, which has reduced their efficiency, caused the reduction in
hydro generation. The second reason is the development of oil exploration which helped the
construction of a number of thermal power plants, as a rapid solution for the shortage in power
generation which Kurdistan region had.
Figure 10, Electricity Mixed Generation in Kurdistan
Source: Author 2014, Based on Ministry of Electricity
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Thermal Generation
Hydro generation

20
4.6.2 Electricity Generation
In 2013, there was more than 3500 MW of installed capacity connected to the main grid in
Kurdistan region. These capacities were consisting of three thermal capacities with 1000 MW in
each of the main governorates of Kurdistan region and two Hydro storage plants in the
governorate of Sulaimanyah. Also, there are some other small and middle diesel stations which
are distributed over three governorates. Table (2) illustrates the existing capacity in 2013. The
construction of a power station of 51 MW with feedstock of HFO and Diesel has been finished,
but during 2013 was out of service. Moreover, there are a number of small diesel generators
with unit size in the range of 1-3 MW, which were providing electricity to the grid in the years
before 2013, but also they were out of service in 2013. According to the document from
general directorate of generation, they will be collected in a station in two townships.
Table 2 Existing Power Stations
Source: Author 2014, Based on (MPES, 2009) and General Directorate of Generation
1
The units (7,8) of this plant are not committed by KRG and they operate only when needed
Installed capacity MW
Power Plant Type Unit
number
Unit
Capacit
y MW
Design
Capacit
y MW
Average
productio
n in 2013
MW
Dokan Hydro
storage
5 80 400 125
Derbandikhan Hydro
storage
3 83 249 75
Erbil IPP Gas+ diesel 8 125 1000 800
Sulaimanyah
IPP
Gas+ diesel 8 125 1000 800
Dohuk IPP Gas+ diesel 8 (1)
125 1000 600
Erbil 29 MW Diesel 4 7.25 29 24
Sulamaniya 29
MW
Diesel 4 7.25 29 24
Dohuk 29 MW Diesel 4 7.25 29 24
Baadrah HFO+Diesel 13 11.54 150 120
Tsluja 51 MW HFO 30 1.7 51 0
Small
Generators
Stations
Diesel 35 35 0
Sakar
Generator
Stations
Dieseal 58 1-3 81 0

21
4.6.3 Electricity Demand
Because of the development in the urbanization, industry and commerce during recent years in
Kurdistan, the demand on electricity continuously has increased. Also, the rate of electrification
has increased at a high percentage. While, it was around 90% in 2009, according to master
plant, that percentage is considered to reach 99.3% by 2015 and only 10 % of this ratio is
excluded from the electrification, because of their remoteness (MPES, 2009, p. 45).
Figure (11) shows how demand has increased during the recent years. It can be seen that in
every year there was a suppressed demand which was more than generated power and it was
covered by another source (in most case private diesel generator available in each districts).
Consequently, this cause load shedding in the system and some time, it had taken hours. From
the figure (11), also it can be observed that the suppressed demand significantly has decreased
in the latest years and the year before it which has stepped to be less than supplied power and
thus load shedding also has reduced.
Figure 11, Demand, Supply and Load Shedding for Electricity in Kurdistan
Source: Author 2014 Based on Ministry of Electricity
The demand data for 2013 (Figure, (12)) shows that the annual peak demand is in winter. This
was also the case in the previous years from 2006 - 2008. It is assumed that this pattern will not
change in the future. Due to the increased use of electrical heating the difference between
summer and winter peak might even increase in future (MPES, 2009). Nevertheless, a portion
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
hour
MW
KRG Demand
suppled MW
suppressed
demand
Avg. Load
Shedding

22
of this suppressed demand has been alleviated by private diesel generator. As can be seen in
figure (11), the electricity outage hours in average has been significantly reduced in recent year.
Figure 12, Average and Peak Electricity Demand for Kurdistan Region in 2013
Source: Author 2014 Based on Ministry of Electricity
4.6.3.1 Electricity Demand by Sectors
Ministry of electricity in Kurdistan region categorizes demand into five sectors which are
residential, commercial, industrial, agriculture and governmental sector. Figure (13) illustrates
how the percentage of number of consumers divided on these sectors in 2013. As, it can be
seen, the share of residential number is the highest and followed by commercial sector.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
MW
Month
Avg. Demand
Peak Demand

23
Figure 13 Consumption Share by Number of Consumer
Source: Author 2014 Based on Electricity Sale Department in MOE
The Same picture will appear when the sector is shown on the base of electricity sold
percentage, as can be seen in figure (14). Although the residential percentage has decreased in
category, the gap between this sector and other sectors still has remained high and this
indicates that the domestic sector has dominated the market of electricity sale in Kurdistan
(MPES, 2009)
Figure 14 Consumption Share by Electricity Consumed
Source: Author 2014 Based on Electricity Sale Department in MOE
However, seemingly because the urban and residential development in Kurdistan region is so
fast, the rate of connecting new consumer to the grid also very high. Additionally, it appears
87.19%
8.62%
0.45% 0.39%
3.35%
Resdential
Commercial
Industrial
Agriculture
Governmental
Resdential
71%
Commercial
8%
Industrial
12%
Agriculture
2%
Governmental
8%

24
that ministry of electricity is seriously active in its plan for delivering electrical energy to any
consumer. Thus, by comparing the data related to the consumer number for previous years,
like 2008 with the data of 2013, this increase will appear to be dramatically high. Table (4)
shows this comparison between the consumer number and the percentage of consumer for
2008 and 2013.
Table 3 Increasing the Number of Consumer
2013 2008
Sectors Consumer
Number
Percentage Consumer
Number
Percentage Difference Percentage
Residential 582172 87.8% 993635 87.2% 411463 71%
Commercial 67300 10.1% 98266 8.6% 30966 46%
Industrial 4102 0.6% 5130 0.5% 1028 25%
Agriculture 2286 0.3% 4395 0.4% 2109 92%
Governmental 7406 1.1% 38180 3.4% 30774 4.2%
total 663266 100% 1139606 100% 476340 72%
Source: Based on Ministry of Electricity and (MPES, 2009)
From the above table, the percentage of increase for five years is 72% which is equivalent to
more than 450000 consumers and the average annual growth rate of consumers was 14.4%.
While, in the study has been done by PB, which is the responsible company of MPES, this rate
was 10.5% between 2007 and 2008. This shows, as mentioned, how the process of connecting
the new consumer and, as a consequence, increasing the load are rapid.
The information on unregulated consumer or the consumer without owning the meter could
not be obtained during preparing this study. Nevertheless, by comparing the data of the three
main governorate of Kurdistan, which is in table (5), it appears that the consumer number in
Sulaimanyah is more than the capital Erbil and Dohuk, as population in Sulaimanyah more than
these two cities. But, the consumption in Erbil is higher than Sulaimanyah, as Erbil hosts all
ministries of the KRG.

25
Table 4 Number of the Consumer Sector per Governorate
Sulaimanyha Erbil Dohuk Total
No. of
Consume
r
Consum
ption
(GWh)
No. of
Consu
mer
Consum
ption
(GWh)
No. of
Consu
mer
Consum
ption
(GWh)
No. of
Consum
er
Consu
mptio
n
(GWh)
Residential 371778 3097
28375
1
3463
33810
6
2228
136541
3
8788
Commercia
l
34720 198 29147 585 34399 208 132986 991
Industrial 3659 1332 855 103 616 53 8789 1488
Agriculture 2024 58 1632 12 739 29 6419 98
Governme
ntal
5196 338 27773 440 5211 212 43376 990
Source: Based on Ministry of Electricity
A non-ordinary condition, perhaps inapposite, noted from previous table is that the industrial
sector in Erbil consumes less than Sulaimanyah, despite it is known that the industrial activity
concentrates more in this city. The same observation for governmental and domestic sectors
has been stated in the master plant when the data for 2007 and 2008 has been compared. At
that time, the reason was linked to the existence of high level of unregulated consumers which
appears to some extent, this problem has been solved. However, this kind of question imposes
further load estimation when process of load forecasting is implemented (MPES, 2009)
4.7 Electricity Network System
Kurdistan region has a system network forked to every place in the region, but it is still not so
reliable for that huge generation which has been planned to be implemented. Nevertheless,
recently the system has seen a significant investment regarding repair and renewal works as
well as integration by adding other parts. Also, KRG has future plan to develop the system so
that it can be reliable for that increase in the generation and demand which is coming. Figure
(41) in annex shows the single line diagram of the transmission and sub-transmission parts for
the Kurdistan electricity network.
4.7.1 Transmission
The highest voltage of the transmission system in Kurdistan region for the time being is 132 kV
followed by 33 kV at the sub-transmission level. The whole transmission network has been
divided into two main areas which are Dohuk and (Erbil and Sulaimanyah) and 132 kV part has
been divided upon five zones: Dohuk, Mosul, Erbil, Sulaimanyah and Kerkuk which represented

26
by these codes 10,11,13,14 and 15 respectively. Table (6) illustrates these areas and zones.
Although, Mosul and Kerkuk are two zones out of the region, they have been included in this
partition, because the network interfaces with Iraqi’s network in these two zones (Addendum
1, 2011) .
Table 5 Transmission Zones
Source: Addendum 1, 2011
The total length of the transmission network in 2011 was 5000 Km which has been subjected
for extension, because of the reinforcement works conducted for the network in the MOE’s
plan since then. “The vast majority of the transmission network is composed of overhead lines.
The standard 132kV transformer is 132/33/11kV, 63/50/25MVA. Also on the network there are
several mobile transformers of 132/11kV 15MVA and 25MVA. The standard 132kV substation is
3x63MVA three winding transformers” (Addendum 1, 2011). Instead of Iraqi’s network, there
are not interconnection between this network and other boundary countries electricity
network; Turkey, Iran and Syria. And, as mentioned, the 132 kV is interconnected with Kerkuk’
network through two lines and with Mosul’s network through one line for exporting electricity
to these two governorates.
There is a part of MOE’s plan for adding 400 kV to this transmission network and significant part
of this plan is under construction nowadays which expected to be finished by the end of 2014.
However, on one hand, it is considered from it to enhance the voltage profile for the network
and on the other hand to give eligibility to the network for future connection with other
networks. The proposed 400 kV in the Kurdistan transmission network by 2015 can be seen in
figure (15) and also table (6) shows the length and substations accompanied it.
Area Number Area Name
1 Dohuk
2 Erbil+
Sulaimanyah
Zone Number Zone Name
10 Dohuk
11 Mosul
13 Erbil
14 Sulaimanyah
15 Kerkuk

27
Figure 15 Proposed 2015 Kurdistan Transmission System
Source: (MPES, 2009)
Simultaneously there are a number of substation will be constructed for the 400 kV
transmission network which are distributed across the region. Table (6) shows the length and
the name of crossed distance as well as the accompanied substation for 400 kV lines.
Table 6, Proposed 400 kV Line and Substation by 2015
400 kV Transmission Line 400 kV Substation
Place Length
(Km)
Place number Capacity (MVA)
Dohuk to Erbil 200 Dohuk 4 250
Erbil to
Sulaimaniya
150 Erbil 4 250
Bekhma to
Sulaimaniya
250 Sulaimanyha 4 250
Bekhma to
Dohuk/Erbil
2x55 Bekhma H.P.S possible future
hydro power
station
Source: Based on (MPES, 2009)

28
Also, the ministry of electricity has considerable development program for addressing the
growth and reliability of transmission and sub-transmission network and the program is already
underway. The starting of this program was before 2011 and it takes up to 2020. The plan
consists of seven stages and should be in its sixth stage for the time being. Indeed, the program
comprises a various related works such as reconstruction of new substation, reconductoring
132 kV by replacing the existing one with a new HTLS1
conductor, and building further
transmission line, etc. . The number of candidate 132 kV line according to this program was 8
with length of 72 Km (Addendum 1, 2011). Beside this program, the master plan developed by
PB in association with ministry of electricity, which covers generation, transmission and
distribution, has justified and modified some sections of this program and moreover it has
extended the program to reach 2030.
However, the additional 132kV transmission line proposed in the stage 6 of the plan is
considered to be 2077 Km length (Addendum 1, 2011). In addition, there are plenty of
substations under construction in each of the three governorates which some of them at the
time of this writing are started to operate. Table (8) represent the name and type of the 132 kV
substations which under construction.
Table 7, Type 132kV Substation under Construction.
Erbil Sulaimanyah Dohuk
Name Type Name Type Name Type
New
Harir=Qushtapa
EU1-0013 Na. SU1-0012 Bardarash DU1-0002
Rezan ER12
-0014 Dokan GIS SU1-0014 West Dohuk DU1-0003
Shaqiawa ER1-0015 Barda
Karaman
SU1-0016 Kalakchi DU1-0006
New Koya ER1-0015 Kifry SU1-0017 North
Dokuk
DU1-0007
Nusaran ER1-00 17 Penjween SU1-0018 Zakho 2 DU1-0013
Nishtiman ER1-0019 Kurdsat SU1-0019
New Shaways ER1-0019 Center SU1-0020
New Badawa ER1-0020 Chwarta SU1-0021
Masif ER13
-M015 New Rizgary SU1-0023
Baserma ER1-M017 Qularaisy SU1-0024
Kori ER1-M018 Kany Speeka SU1-0025
Tanjaro SU1-0026
Halabja SU1-0028
Source: Based on Department of planning in MoE
1
High Temperature Low Sag electricity conductor
2
ER1,SU1,DU1 are substations which have 3 or 2 transformers with capacity of 63x50x25 MVA or 63x50x40 MVA
3
ER1-M is substation that has 1 transformer with capacity of 25 MVA

29
4.7.2 System Reliability
The reliability of any transmission system is addressed by analyzing the condition of the system
regarding its voltage, load flow and contingency (n-1).
4.7.2.1 Voltage profile
Figure (16) shows the difference between the system’s voltage in 2011 and 2015, and also the
improvement that will occur over the system’s voltage profile in the ongoing years according to
the rehabilitation proposed to the transmission network in the plan.
Figure 16 Transmission Voltage Profile after Proposed Plan
Source: Addendum 1, 2011
From the above figure (16), the test, which was done for the available network in 2011, shows
that the voltage in one area(dark blue) is under the standard 0.9PU, despite the unsuppressed
demand had been scaled down to the generation level and then distributed upon the network ,
as the generation was below the demand. The same test was applied to the proposed network
for 2015, but there is no voltage below standard 0.9PU, although the system will see much
generation as well as much expansion.
4.7.2.2 Load profile
Simultaneously, the analysis was done for assessing the load flow of the system and the result
was, as shown in figure (17), only one line overloaded in 2011 and for future planed years , for
instance 2015 and 2020, there is not overloaded line due to reconductoring, expanding and
reinforcing the system.

30
Figure 17 Comparison of Load flow Rate among Three Years
Source: (Addendum 1, 2011)
4.7.2.3 Contingency Analysis
“An important of system’s security study moves around the power system’s ability to withstand
the effects of contingencies, therefore a particular system state is said to be secure only with
reference to one or more specific contingency cases” (DP Kothari & IJ Nagrath, 2007). Hence,
contingency analysis as a part of system security analysis is crucial for addressing the effect of
outage on the system’s stability. A typical analysis is single element outage (N-1) ((one-
transmission line or one-generator outage), multiple-element (N-2), and sequential outage (N-
1-1) (one outage after another) (Yan Sun & J.Overbye, 2004).

31
By carrying out an initial (N-1) contingency analysis of Kurdistan’s transmission network in 2011,
as a result, five lines overloaded by loss of another circuit where one 132 kV circuit of the lines
was taken out of service as simulation to fault contingency. The same analysis also caused three
circuits of 132 kV to overload for year 2015 of the reference scenario, but for 400 kV no circuit
overloaded. For 2020, as there will be a number of generation connected to 400 kV, the
analysis only carried out for 400 kV showed unsatisfied result at three connections points,
consequently another line was proposed (Addendum 1, 2011).
As appears in the previous discussion, the transmission network in Kurdistan has exceeded
good stages for being a notable system, after it was substandard. Nonetheless, still there are
some insufficiencies which needed to be remedied, particularly whereas the network is
expected to face more generation in the near future. However, it is understood that the
ministry of electricity goes ahead on its plan for expanding and enhancing the network, which
to some extent will upgrade network's level of resilience and make it as a standardized
network.
Eventually, it should be mentioned that the installation of the system of SCADA1
on the network
is an intention of the ministry, which is under implementation, at present. Although, it is
expected initially to cover distribution part, there is prospect to extend to other parts of the
network. Anyway, this work is considered to contribute in the development of the network.
4.8 Distribution
First of all, this section will be conducted depending on the existing study plan proposed to
investigate and develop the distribution network in Kurdistan. The plan is in three separate
publications for each governorate under the name of Electricity Network Development Plan
2012-2023.
Distribution network in Kurdistan consists of the two levels of voltage; 33kV as a primary
distribution voltage in some instances to provide dedicated supply to large loads ,11 kV as a
medium level which originate either from 132/33/11 kV substation or 33/11 kV substation, and
then LV level which outputs at 400 V range from distribution transformer . The 11 kV is
considered as a core voltage in distribution network, since it extend to all geographical area in
the Kurdistan region providing primary connection to the system for electricity consumer
(ENDP, 2013 & 2014). Figure (18) shows a basic structural diagram of the electricity network of
Kurdistan.
1
SCADA: is ‘Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition’. The major function of SCADA is for acquiring data from
remote devices. (Schneider Electric, 2012)

32
Figure 18 Kurdistan Network Structure
Source: (ENDP, 2013, 2014)
The same as the transmission network, the distribution system also is facing a future of a high
growth of the demand as well as rapid expansion which needs a lot of preparation and
development in the system. Regardless, the distribution network itself suffers from a plenty of
deficiency, which can be decidedly argued that they are more than the problems of the
transmission network.
4.8.1 Assessment of the Network
As mentioned, the existing distribution electricity system has a number of problematic issues
which are reducing its effectiveness as an intact network. These issues like; problem of capacity,
voltage drop, security of supply, etc... . In the following some of these issues will be mentioned.
4.8.1.1 Voltage Drop
In an analysis for the load flow of the network on the base of each governorate, it was obtained
that there are over 25% of 11 kV feeders affected by voltage drop under the accepted standard
of 10% which in turn will affect LV also. The number of feeders affected by voltage drop was in
Erbil 48, Sulaimanyah 39 and Dohuk 40 feeders and the percentage of distribution transformer
affected by this drop in each governorate were 14%, 15% and 20% respectively. Bear in mind
that the analysis was done during winter season when there is the peak of demand and in the
most case the feeders where far from the cities center faced this drop (ENDP, 2013 & 2014).
Figure (19) gives illustration of affected feeders and their level of voltage drop.

33
Figure 19 Voltage Drop on 11 kV Feeders in each Governorate of Kurdistan
Source: ENDP, 2013 & 2014
Simultaneously, the 33 kV feeders as sub-transmission line and also as part of disruption system
, in some case, were affected by that voltage drop, for instance in Erbil 13 feeders out of 41
available feeder affected, in Sulaimanyah 10 of 34 and in Dohuk 5 of 22 (same source).
4.8.1.2 Over Load
Another issue of Kurdistan’s distribution network is the problem of feeder’s high loading
especially during the period of high demand, as a significant number of 11 kV feeders and 33 kV
are affected by excessive load. The same analysis provided that there are feeders in each
governorate which their load were either beyond 350A as critical level or between 300-350 A as
warring level1
.
1
Recognition for Kurdistan’s 11 kV in winter term, as about 60% of the 11 kV network comprise of ACSR 120/20
conductor lines (ENDP, 2013).

34
As well there are the conditions wherein the loads of 30 kV sub- transmission feeders exceed its
conductor’s rate. Table (9) shows the number of feeders which they were overloaded during
winter according to each governorate.
Table 8 the overload of 11 kV and 33 kV in winter 2013.
11 kV feeders 33 kV
Governorate Owned
Number
300 -350 A
(Warning Level)
350 A
(Critical level)
Owned
Number
Over
110%
loading
Erbil 424 79 30 30 4
Sulaimanyah 367 65 22 34 1
Dohuk1
249 35 7 42 5
Source: Author 2014, based on ENDP, 2013 & 2014
4.8.2 System Reliability
The same as transmission network, the distribution network has a number of problematic
issues concerning the reliability. In the regard, the load flow and contingency (n-1) test
conducted for network have resulted in the existence of the lack in the distribution feeders and
lines (ENDP, 2013, 2014).
1
The data of Dohuk is from middle 0f 2012. Since, the time difference is not so long, has been estimated like
2013

35
5 The status quo of renewable energy in Kurdistan region
Contribution of renewable energy in Kurdistan’s electricity mixed production is very limited. It
does not exceed more than hydro energy level. The existing hydro-energy capacity is 649MW,
which is counted for two hydro schemes. As well, there are a number of off- grid micro hydro
that spread across the region with capacity less than 100 kW and also one hydro scheme exists
with capacity of 1.2 MW. Figure (20) shows one of the installed micro hydro plants in Kurdistan.
However, because of limited available capacity, they're not counted in the Ministry’s assets of
the generation. Although, these micro-hydro schemes previously were within the activities of
renewable energy department, at present it is outside the department's concerns, because of
the electrification expansion for these areas. And also, since these schemes did not have any
revenue (off-grid), they were being neglected by the community provided with it (Karim, 2014).
Figure 20, Micro Hydro Scheme under Construction
Source: Renewable Energy Department in MOE
In the solar and wind field, there are also some limited installations which do not exceed
domestic use such as lighting and water heating. Indeed, what can be seen with the public is
that they have so much willingness for benefiting from solar, but the lack of enough knowledge
and sufficient experiences has caused the solar technology not develop as much as it was

36
needed. Obviously this has affected solar technology, as well as wind, to have considerably low
market demand and consequently relatively high cost. The cost of 1 kW PV for domestic use
without inventor is 10000 US$ and 400 Wt small wind turbine with 7.5 m tour is cost 1250 US$1
.
With respect to availability of information about wind and solar resource, from 2010, 15 mast
have been installed across the region each five in one governorate (Zagros Group and Energy
Team Ag, 2010)and since then the data for wind and solar are being collected after not having
accurate data in this regard. Based on these data, wind atlas for Kurdistan has been developed
and also wind and solar project have been proposed. Figure (21) shows the existing installed
mast in Kurdistan region for obtaining wind and solar data.
Figure 21 Masts of Wind and Solar Data in Kurdistan
Source: Department of Renewable Energy in MOE
5.1 Renewable Resource Potential
This chapter will discuss available potential of renewable energy in Kurdistan region. Bear in
mind that, the word Renewable here only includes Hydro, wind and solar, since biomass in form
1
Interview with an entrepreneur in the field (Arass, 2014)

37
of wood and other agriculture waste, it used broadly by people in rural area. Hence, despite its
availability, it cannot be expected to contribute significantly in renewable energy (MPES, 2009).
Other renewable resource, like geothermal, is understood not to be available at least for the
time being.
5.1.1 Hydro
The existence of many hydro sites can provides relatively high potential of hydro energy
resource to Kurdistan region. Some of these sites have been historically developed like; Dokan
and Darbandikhan hydro dam and some others are under construction or planned to be
developed in the future. A pilot study carried out in 2007 by the Japan Bank for International
Cooperation (JBIC) in association with Ministry of electricity and Iraqi federal ministry of
planning and development indicated 20 sites with estimated capacity of starting from 7 to 111
MW and the total capacity of 947 MW (JBIC, 2007).
However, the pilot study has not included available large hydro sites addressed by other
feasibility studies, whereas there are other feasibility studies for other sites which are above
200 MW to 620 MW. One of these studies is Beckhma hydro scheme with 1500 MW which the
construction within it was stopped in 1990 and then for the reason of reducing social impact, it
has been changed to Mandawa of 620 MW. The last one is included in the ministry of electricity
master plant (MPES, 2009). Figure (22) shows potential sites of hydropower in Kurdistan.

38
Figure 22 Potential Sites for Hydropower and Wind Data Mast in Kurdistan
Source: (Renewable Energy Department, 2014) in MOE
The author has made estimation for hydro resource depending on the above figure and the list
of hydro sites accompanied it. The estimation has reduced the hydro sites that seem to be on
series and chose the bigger one among them. Consequently, it is estimated that Kurdistan may
have a potential of hydro energy of 2385 MW and if 40% is estimated as overall future
availability for these hydro schemes, the annual hydro yield will be roughly 8355 GWh/year1
.
As mentioned previously some of these sites have been developed and some others are under
construction, but the presumed hydro schemes by the ministry of electricity at present are only
1
The estimation includes the hydro powers that currently is in operation.

39
those within the capacities of more than 1 MW. Figure (23) illustrates installed hydro project of
1.2 MW.
Figure 23 Bekhal Hydro Power in Kurdistan
The seasonal hydrology for the existing hydro power plants in Kurdistan has not historically
recorded reassuring results, as it has affected the availability and operation of these plants.
Depending on the review of historical inflow data for these plants, 5 cases of probable
hydrological condition were defined for these hydro plants and it does not determines
relatively long-periodical wet condition for them (MPES, 2009). Table (10) shows these cases.
Table 9 Hydrological Condition Probability Distribution
Hydrological
Condition
Probability
Very Dry1
7.8%
Dry 9.8%
Average 62.8%
Wet 11.8%
Very Wet 7.8%
Source: (MPES, 2009)
1
By arranging the inflow at five category level of wetness.

40
Also it has been found that the very wet condition in winter is so short thereby the operator has
been forced to reduce the effectiveness or availability of these power plants and store water
during the peak demand of electricity in winter and particularly in December and January,
because of lack of sufficient head as a result of low inflow. This has created a kind of hesitation
with decision maker or planning developer considering that the cost of the compared electricity
(electricity from conventional plants) is much higher, simultaneously hydro much worthwhile,
during the peak load than storage period (MPES, 2009). Nevertheless, still there are some
hydropower schemes planned to be built for irrigation purpose as well as getting electricity in
Kurdistan. These projects will be mentioned in the coming chapters. Figure (24) shows Deralok
hydropower plant committed to operate by the end of 2014.
Figure 24 Deralok Hydropower Project in Kurdistan
5.1.2 Wind
Before 2010, there was not accurate available data about wind speed in Kurdistan. The
available obtained data were only from some station installed by (FAW) for agriculture
purposes. By 2010, a proposed plan took effect by ministry of electricity for installing 15 masts,
previous figure (22), across Kurdistan region. Additionally, as intended, the feasibility study was
conducted for two sites from each governorate and resulted in estimation for having wind farm
in each sites (Final Report for WEFS, 2013), , which will be mentioned in coming chapters.

41
The available data from these masts point to the existence of significant potential of wind
energy in Kurdistan. Figure (25) shows the monthly average wind speed of each five sites at the
high of 50m for 2012 per each governorate (North, Middle, and Southeast). However, while
the master plan for electricity sector was being established, these measurements were not
available. Hence, a desk study was conducted depending on the low wind speed identified from
World Wind Atlas. Thus, the study resulted in a low capacity factor and relatively high cost of
0.22 US$/kWh at that time (MPES, 2009). This made the planner not to include any wind power
plant in the future master plan.
Figure 25 Monthly Avg. Wind Speed at 50 m high in Kurdistan
Source: Author 2014, Based on (Renewable Energy Department, 2014)
The Kurdistan wind map report is another result of these measuring masts, which has been
produced at three different highs (80, 100, and 120) m. figure (26) shows the wind map of 100
m high. Accordingly, the report regards the map as a dependable reference for further wind
farm developing in the future and indicates 2% of total Kurdistan to be suitable in this regard
(WARK , 2012).
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Montholy
Avg.
Wind
Speed(m/s)
Duhok, North
Erbil,Middle
Sulaimanyah, Southeast

42
Figure 26 Wind Map of Kurdistan
Source: (WARK , 2012)
Based on the existing feasibility studies for the six mentioned sites, the average of annual
energy calculated for one wind turbine of various types (NORDEX, ENERCON, Repower, Vestas)
is 3464 MWh/year (Final Report for WEFS, 2013). By estimation, the needed area for 1 MW
wind turbine is equivalent to 85 acres (0.34 km2
) (Denholm, Hand, Jackson, & and Ong, 2011)
and it is known that Kurdistan region covers 40,000 Km2
(KRG webpsite, 2014). As well, if from
previous wind atlas 2% of Kurdistan is being useful for wind energy, the author has used
following formula for determining wind resource;
Pw= (A× ρ/a) ηw × E …………………. (1)
Pw: Potential of wind energy [GWh].
A: the area of Kurdistan region [Km2
].
ρ: percentage of useful area for wind energy[%].
a: the area for wind turbine of 1MW[Km2
].
E: annual energy yield from one turbine [GWh/ye].
ηw: wind turbine efficiency [95%]

43
5.1.3 Solar Energy
Same as wind, the precise data about solar energy was scarce previously, but by installing the
measurement masts, the solar radiation data started to be obtained. As can be seen in global
solar atlas, figure (27), Kurdistan region-Iraq is within the countries that has a high solar
radiation.
Figure 27 Kurdistan Solar Radiation among Global Radiation
Source: (GeoModelSolar, 2014)
The data from the 15 measurement masts determines the mean value of around 203 W/m2 of
radiation for 2012. Figure (28) shows monthly mean radiation of 15 sites across the region. Bear
in mind that the main purpose of these masts is for measuring wind speed, therefore while the
data was being analyzed; it was observed that when any mast had been moved from a site to
another, because of limited wind speed, solar radiation at first site was higher than second site.
Thus, it can be claimed that the potential of solar is to be a bit higher than from the
measurements.

44
Figure 28, Monthly Mean Radiation in Kurdistan
Source: Author 2014, Based on (Renewable Energy Department, 2014)
Figure (29) illustrates the sunshine duration in Kurdistan region. Accordingly, the annual
average sunshine duration can be assumed as 8.5 h/d. The total cultivated land in Kurdistan is
6215 km2
(RDSK, 2012), which represents16% of Kurdistan’s area. Assuming 36% for urban area
and unusable lands, the author has determined the annual potential of solar resource in
Kurdistan by the formula in the down:
Ps = (365×A×ſ) x ηs /103
………………………… ( 2)
Ps: Annual potential of solar energy [GWh].
A: The area of Kurdistan region [m2
].
ſ: daily solar radiation [Wh/m2
/day]
ηs: Solar panel efficiency [20%]
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Solar
Radiation
(w/m2)
Erbil, Middel
Duhok, North
Sulaimanyah, Southeast

45
Figure 29, Monthly Sunshine Duration in Kurdistan
Source: (meteonorm, 2013)
5.2 Options for the sustainable and resilient development of the energy
system in Kurdistan
It is necessary that we choose here a definition for sustainability and resilience separately and
know how they relate to each other in order to be clear what purpose is intended. And also in
this regard, we should know the characteristics of sustainable and resilient systems so that a
proper energy system for Kurdistan could be determined in the light of these indicators.
According to (Pisano, 2012) resilient system can be described by the following indicator:
1. “The amount of disturbance a system can absorb and still remain within the same state
or domain of attraction.
2. The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization.
3. The ability to build and increase the capacity for learning and adaptation”.
Bear in mind that when the resilience in energy system is mentioned, it is not meant here the
level of the vulnerability of system to specific condition, for instance electricity system during
disaster, as some literatures go around it, although the intent also must include this kind of
resilience. The context of resilience here is more comprehensive and broader in such a way that
it evaluates the compatibility of the system with the socio- ecological concepts.
Therefore, an energy system is said that it is resilient if it has a capacity to “withstand
perturbations from e.g. climatic, economic, technological and social causes and to rebuild and
renew it afterwards” (Naim Afgan, 2012) as well as “properly consider maintaining the general

46
capacities of a social-ecological system that allow it to absorb unforeseen disturbance” (Pisano,
2012).
Perhaps a good explanation for resilient system is obtained through figure (30), which has been
taken from (Fiksel, 2003). As laws of thermodynamic tell us the effective systems is the open
system that unlike closed systems depends on external source for energy. This provides low
entropy1
condition and consequently equilibrium state far from disorder (Fiksel, 2003).
Accordingly, the figure (30) illustrates three type of system subjected to thermodynamic
changes at the stable state of the lowest potential energy ; the first one is resistant system and
it may be able to recover from small disordering stress, but it cannot act against higher
perturbation. The second one unlike the first is non narrow and is a resilient system which
gradually returns to stability after changes through adaptation and evolution. The third system
although may have more resilience than the second, the specific disordering condition may
shift it to another fundamentally changed state (Fiksel, 2003) , which expends more time and
cost.
Figure 30 Examples of System Behavior
Source: (Fiksel, 2003)
On the other hand there is interdependent relation between sustainability and resilience in the
systems and resilience thinking for systems is important as much as sustainable development is
(Pisano, 2012). However, a useful definition of sustainability for system design purpose, which
can be chosen among other definitions, is: “A product, process, or service contributes to
sustainability if it constrains environmental resource consumption and waste generation to an
acceptable level, supports the satisfaction of important human needs, and provides enduring
economic value to the business enterprise” (Fiksel, 2003).
1
“The entropy of the system is measured in terms of the changes the system has undergone from the previous state to the final state” and it ” is heat or energy
change per degree Kelvin temperature” (Bright Hub, 2014)

47
5.2.1 Advanced Energy System for Kurdistan
From previous discussion, it can be said that a developed energy system is a one which
characterized by resilience thinking and sustainability. This argument In order to be
distinguishable, we should know what is the characteristic of resilient system itself. Thus,
resilient system is characterized by (Fiksel, 2003):
- Diversity: As “distributed systems composed of independent yet interactive elements
may deliver equivalent or better functionality with greater resilience” (Fiksel, 2003).
- Efficiency: Outstanding performance by consuming a little resource, but giving more
output.
- Adaptability: “It represents the capacity to adjust responses to changing external
drivers and internal processes, and thereby allow for development along the current
trajectory” (Pisano, 2012).
- Cohesion: by having strong linkage among the elements for standing against shocks.
Moreover, based on (Benjamin McLellan, 2012) , for the sake of establishing a sustainable and
resilient development for Kurdistan's energy system, besides having previous characteristics, it
is proposed matching the system with the following administrative criteria:
1) Continuity: A good asset of infrastructure provides continuity for energy system as well
as day by day reviewing process and constant planning.
2) Robustness: The system should resist any natural and unnatural shocks and comprise
sufficient alternatives in this regard.
3) Independency: The system is independent concerning its ability to continue for a period
of time without interruption, despite unavailability of any external inputs. As well, it is
enjoyed independency by enhancements from the institutions and mechanisms related
to the energy systems.
4) Controllability: the system can be controlled easily and immediately by existence of
prestigious-communication system network.
5) Farness from the risk: This includes the risk caused to environment and also to human
beings.
6) Matching to Demand: The system should be able to provide energy whenever,
wherever, whatever and of any quantity is needed.

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