Plans for power interconnection between Iraq and neighboring Arab Gulf states have been pushed back to 2025. Just six months ago the plan was for electricity exports to begin in time for the summer 2024 peak demand season (MEES, 22 July 2022). The initial plan under a deal reached in 2019 was for supplies to begin by summer 2020 (MEES, 13 September 2019). Iraq’s Basra province is poised to receive 500MW of power from the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) which may eventually ramp up to 1.8GW at later stages. The final agreement and tariff were agreed in July of last year.
While the target has already been missed many times, work at the key Wafra (Z) substation in Kuwait is at least finally set to begin. Previously, MEES was told by a GCCIA source that construction work should start in August 2022 but it appears that land allocation for the substation required approval by Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC). (CONTINUED - 784 WORDS)
