US EditionHeatwave and Plant Fault Trigger Widespread Power Outage in Iraq
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN IRAQ, AUG 11 – The outage cut over 6,000 megawatts from the grid amid record temperatures and millions of pilgrims, worsening Iraq's chronic electricity shortages, officials said.
- During Monday, Iraq's national power grid collapsed after a fault in the transmission network caused by extreme heat and demand, sources said, plunging central and southern regions into darkness.
- The outage was triggered when the Mussayib–Babil 400 kV transmission lines tripped under heavy loads driven by record temperatures above 50 °C and a surge of millions of pilgrims in Karbala.
- A loss of more than 6,000 megawatts prompted generating units nationwide to shut down automatically, triggering a chain reaction that halted operations.
- Staged restoration began in the southern provinces, with power being restored in Dhi Qar and Maysan, and Basra expected to have electricity back by dawn on Tuesday.
- The blackout underscores chronic electricity shortages since the US-led invasion in 2003, as summer demand is projected to peak at 55 gigawatts in 2025 against a 27-gigawatt supply.
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65 Articles
The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has reported a "total" failure of the electricity grid, causing a temperature increase of up to 50 degrees.
Iraq announces nationwide power outage amid ’record’ heat
Power was out across Iraq on Monday as scorching summer temperatures pushed electricity grid demand to unprecedented levels, authorities said. The outage came amid a heatwave that Iraqi meteorological services expect to last more than a week, with temperatures climbing as high as 50C in parts of the country. Mitigating the grid interruption was the fact that most households rely on private generators, which they acquire to compensate for daily p…
Iraq is located in one of the hottest regions in the world. Now the electricity has failed nationwide, apparently also because of the high consumption of fans and air conditioning systems.
Iraq's electricity network has been faced for months with a "total rain" caused by "a record increase of temperatures", as well as an increase in consumption, which led to the stop of two transmission lines,...
The breakdown occurs when the thermometer reaches up to 50 °C in Baghdad.
In many regions of Iraq, electricity has failed - in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures up to 50 degrees. The infrastructure is either destroyed or extremely prone to disturbance after decades of war.
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