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Jordan Electricity Generation
Between 1980 and 1985, per capita consumption of electricity
doubled from 500 kilowatt hours per year to 1,000 kilowatt hours
per year. The demand increase reflected the doubling in the number
of households supplied with electricity as rural villages were
electrified. By 1985 about 400,000 households, or 97 percent of the
population, had access to electricity. Electricity generation
increased 23 percent in 1986 and 18 percent in 1987 to total 712
megawatts or 3.2 billion kilowatt hours. After rural
electrification was completed, growth in capacity outpaced growth
in consumption, which was limited by conservation measures to about
3 percent to 4 percent per year. Roughly 40 percent of the electric
power generated was used by industry, 30 percent was used by
private citizens, 13 percent was used by commercial businesses, and
the remainder was used by water pumping stations. The Hussein
Thermal Power Station at Az Zarqa historically had produced more
than 70 percent of the country's electricity, but at the end of
1987, the opening of the Al Aqabah Thermal Power Station added 260
megawatts, boosting Jordan's generating capacity to 972 megawatts
and ensuring self-sufficiency into the early 1990s. A 400-kilovolt
transmission line connected Al Aqabah and Amman. The Al Aqabah
plant was to be expanded to a total capacity of 520 megawatts by
the mid-1990s, and was planned eventually to supply 1,540
megawatts.
Although Jordan depended entirely on imported oil to fire its
generating plants in 1988, the government planned to reduce this
dependency. The 1988 discovery of natural gas at Rishah, near the
Iraqi border, led to feasibility studies of retrofitting the Az
Zarqa plant with gas turbine generators. A 20-megawatt
hydroelectric station was to be included as part of the planned Al
Wahdah Dam on the Yarmuk River. Discoveries of shale oil in the
southern Wadi as Sultani region kindled hopes of a 100-megawatt
shale-fired electric plant in that area. In 1989 Jordan also was
prospecting for underground geothermal sources.
Data as of December 1989
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