5 days ago
Iran halts electricity supplies to Iraq
Baghdad ( – Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company, known as Tavanir, said that it ceased electricity supplies to neighboring Iraq in order to meet increased local demand.
Tavanir's head of transmission and international trade operations, Mohammad Allahdad, said on Wednesday that Iran's power exports had dropped dramatically in recent months, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA).
Allahdad stated that Iran is trying to enhance its power purchases while reducing exports to neighboring countries.
The majority of Iran's electricity exports, which were formerly directed toward Iraq under international contracts, had now ceased entirely, according to Allahdad.
Iran is seeing an increase in power consumption as a result of a blistering heatwave that has afflicted various areas of the country.
The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity said last month that its current energy production is around 24,500 megawatts, with an operational deficit of over 4,000 megawatts.
The spokesperson for the Electricity Ministry, Ahmed Musa, said in a statement that Iraq has reached its peak summer load season, resulting in increased energy consumption, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
Musa elaborated that Iraq's power grid is currently losing more than 4,000 megawatts as a result of the imported gas shortage.
As Iraq depends heavily on gas imports from Iran to operate many power plants, the country is receiving only 22 million cubic meters of the gas needed to operate power plants every day, out of the 55 million cubic meters necessary for the month, according to Musa.
The Iraqi Electricity Minister, Ziyad Ali Fadel, mentioned earlier that between 32,000 and 35,000 megawatts are needed to cover domestic consumption.
