Iraq has launched a project to link its power network with neighboring Jordan as part of post-war plans to tackle a chronic power supply shortages that had made it heavily reliant on electricity imports from Iran, a local news agency said on Wednesday. 

The project runs parallel to another plan to build a common power grid with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Shafaq News said, quoting Iraqi Electricity Ministry spokesman Ahmed Al-Abadi. 

“We have started the first phase of the project for a power link with Jordan…the project involves the construction of a power generation station and installation of cables, with a capacity of 400 megawatts (MW),” Abadi said. 

Abadi said around 87 percent of a project to connect Iraq’s power grid with the GCC has been completed, adding that phase 1 of this project would supply Iraq with 500 MW. 

Development funds in the six-nation GCC have agreed to fund the project, which will connect power facilities in South Iraq with those in South Kuwait. 

Iraq, sitting atop the world’s 5th largest recoverable oil deposits, has also been locked in plans to build solar power stations to slash power imports and meet growing domestic demand following war damage to its power sector. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com) 

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