The 500 MW first phase of power grid interconnection between the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) and Iraq has been postponed to summer 2022. When the deal was first reached in the second half of 2019, supplies were meant to begin by summer 2020, although a GCCIA source told MEES at the time that that was extremely ambitious (MEES, 13 September 2019).

The delays are primarily down to the GCC. In December, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity announced that it had completed 80% of the infrastructure requirements on the Iraqi side, but was still awaiting Kuwaiti authorities to begin building the needed transmission. (CONTINUED - 726 WORDS)