Hotline service by Iraq’s electricity directorate, bringing smiles for citizens

Ali Faeq, a Baghdad resident, was not really expecting a quick response when he called up al-Karkh Electricity Directorate's telephone hotline to report an electrical problem in his home. He remarked, "I thought I would remain for one or two days without electricity until the maintenance team came to fix the fault, but this thought was misplaced, because shortly after the maintenance team came and reconnected the power to my home.” It has to be noted that electricity board of Baghdad has introduced several hotline services for this summer to aid the consumers. Summer comes with a lot of major electricity problems as this part of the world becomes quite hot during the summer and rise in temperature leads to several major electric faults, including short circuit problem, which is a commonly seen during the summer season. The hotline services receive faulty electrical supply complaints and direct the complaint to the concerned authority for quick and effective restoration services. These will receive customer complaints within each directorate's geographic area of responsibility. The al-Karkh Electricity Directorate spokesman Salah Ghazi told to the local news media, "On average we receive about 85 to 100 daily complaints related to various electricity breakdowns or problems." He also added, "First we record some required data from the person lodging the complaint, and then we instruct our technical staff to quickly head to the location of the failure and fix it.” Ghazi claimed that his directorate "is continuously working on maintaining the energy network and repairing any breakdown, including normal wear-and-tear and emergency damages, that might be caused a power grid overload". Climate or temperature is mainly responsible for the problems that are caused in line distribution and damages. Al-Rusafa Electricity Directorate spokesman Makki Shabib said his directorate responds to hotline complaints "by immediately going to the complainant's address to fix the damage". He remarked that people should use up energy with more responsibility. It is sheer important to build up mass consciousness around the country so that citizens do not waste energy and should refrain themselves from line hooking or energy theft. Such problems lead to overloading of the grids and hence the overall framework of electricity supply gets hampered. These measures are essential to "ensure the stability of electric current supplies. He also remarked that in this hot climate it will be really a struggle for the citizens if there are blackouts. Hence, it is the responsibility of the electricity board to ensure continuous electricity supply, which can only be achieved through mass awareness and through installing up to the dated technologies. Rapid Response Perfection Abdul Ilah al-Amir, adviser to the deputy prime minister for energy affairs, praised the Ministry of Electricity's effort to respond to complaints and resolve them quickly. In an interview in front of media and press, he remarked, "Iraq’s electric energy production is continually improving as a result of the completion of numerous power plants, which enabled us to raise production to the current level of about 11,000 megawatts." He assured that the ministry is working with precision to raise the production level in order to maintain uniform and uninterrupted supplies. According to him, within a few months, production will reach around 20,000 megawatts. He told that this production level is good enough to eradicate the electricity shortage and through this self-sufficiency for energy level can be attained. He also added, "During the current summer season, citizens will be supplied with electric power for no less than 16 hours daily, and after the completion of more stations by the end of the year, we will be able to provide electricity around the clock." Regarding the manpower base, he commented that the electricity department has sufficient and meticulous worker base. The board has good number of maintenance crews, and good stocks of wires, energy transfer equipment and electric transformers. Al-Dora resident Fouad Hamza, 33, said the energy transformer in his neighborhood recently broke down and a number of houses, including his own, lost electricity as a result. He said, "I informed the relevant office of the problem by telephone, and immediately the maintenance crews came and replaced the faulty transformer with a new one, and electricity returned to our homes amid a great feeling of relief by the residents, who praised the workers for their effort." Firas Jabbar, 27 years of age, Al-Zaafaraniya resident, called an Al-Rusafa Electricity Directorate hotline to ask that the unstable electric current in his home and the adjacent houses be repaired. He remarked that the maintenance team was soon in the action, as they get the complaint and restored the electricity supply within few hours. Jabbar said he was pleased by the fast reaction of the directorate staff which, he said, reflects notable progress in the customer services it provides. He called for further steps to be taken to increase the hours of supply and ensure its smooth flow. 157 hotlines have been allocated by Al-Karkh Electricity Directorate, in addition to the lines, like - 07705323407, 07804765282 and 07904765281 for receiving complaints.