Brigadier,
I know that, in general, gf0012aust knows a considerable amount about power grids and how they really function. Were he around, his commentary would be really useful. I've read comments about Iraq's dysfunctional power grid but how and to what extent, I honestly don't know.
It seems though that centralized control doesn't exist any longer. Complexes designed to operate the nat'l grid were irrepairably looted in April 2003. If not, it's evident that they aren't yet functioning. Generators enter and exit the grid at the whim of operators with stories of sectarian and criminal control over sectors of the grid. There's no load-balancing worries though.
That's for sure.
Here's a story from August in the NYT-
Iraq's Power Grid
This issue alone would, I'd like to think, separate insurgents, sectarian militias, and criminals from the citizenry. These actions can only impact Iraqis. Coalition forces, as you'd expect, have considerable redundancy from base generators.
As this article suggests, though-without a functioning grid any increase in power generation will likely be absorbed locally at the nation's expense. Logically, contracts would be issued to rebuild the nat'l power grid before generation. To my mind, these generation plants will become a sectarian asset without a nat'l grid with which to link and that hardly encourages broad-based reconciliation.
I continue to see a formal partition looming on the horizon in a loosely federated Iraq. This seems another example of the forces leaning in that direction.