New Projects, Grid Link to Add 11,000 MW to Iraq’s Power Network

New projects and the planned grid link with neighboring countries will add nearly 11,000 megawatts (MW) to Iraq’s electricity production in the next three years, said the country’s Electricity Minister.

Ziad Fadhil said Iraq is producing nearly 26,000 MW of electricity but actual needs are estimated around 40,000 MW.

He told the official Iraqi news agency that a large part of Iraq’s power network depends on imported gas from nearby Iran because domestic gas production is not enough.

“The Electricity Ministry has drawn up a plan to add around 11,000 MW of electricity to the country’s generation capacity…part of this will be produced from expansion of some networks and the rest from the planned grid connection with nearby states and renewable energy projects,” the Minister said.

Iraq has finalized contracts with TotalEnergies of France and other foreign firms to build solar power plants and it intends to award more projects to other companies.