Turkey is emerging as Iraq’s largest foreign supplier of electricity as Baghdad has turned to its northern neighbor to help replace lost energy supplies from Iran this summer. Iraq’s electricity ministry signed a new “electricity exchange contract” with Turkish trader Alfirin Enerji Ticaret on 4 June to double imports to 600MW. On the same day, the cabinet approved plans to contract 650MW of floating power plant capacity from Turkish firm Karpowership.
In total, this brings ‘Turkish’ supplies up to 1.25GW, equivalent to the 1.2GW capacity interconnectors from Iran. Iranian electricity flows have been suspended since the US banned Iraq from making payments to Tehran in March (MEES, 14 March). Iraq also imports substantial volumes of gas from Iran – contracted volumes are sufficient to generate 10GW – and while flows are allowed to continue, Iran’s domestic requirements have led to a significant drop in volumes (MEES, 13 June). (CONTINUED - 892 WORDS)
