Iran’s electricity supply to Iraq slashed by a fourth after explosion: Tavanir

Iran state electricity company Tavanir says power supplies to Iraq have been slashed by a fourth after an explosion in the Iraqi territory that is believed to have been carried out by the Daesh terrorist group.

Tavanir spokesman Mostafa Rajabi said on Wednesday that the explosion a day earlier in Iraq's eastern Diyala province had targeted one of the four lines used for transmission of electricity from neighboring Iran.

Rajabi said Iraq would be responsible for the entire operation to repair the line as well as for evaluations related to losses suffered to supplies because of the explosion.

He said repairs on the damaged transmission line should finish within the next two or three days.

Iraq security sources have blamed the Daesh terrorist group for the explosion in Diyala where the blast has caused power cuts in swaths of lands in the territory.

Iran using limited electricity supplies from Azerbaijan to prevent outages

Iran’s state electricity company it is importing limited supplies from Azerbaijan to prevent power cuts.

Iran started to slash electricity supplies to Iraq by more than 60% in June amid increased domestic demand for power and the fact that Iraqi government had failed to settle its previous energy supplies debts to Tehran.

Iraqi authorities have been shuttling between Baghdad and Tehran to find a settlement on the issue of energy arrears as they seek a restoration of electricity and natural gas supplies from Iran in the run up to hot summer months in the Arab country.

Rajabi said increased household and industrial demand for power has caused Iran’s imports of electricity to outpace exports, adding that demand is expected to further increase amid rising temperatures.

Iran started to take delivery of power supplies from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan earlier this month to tackle a shortage of electricity in areas in northeast and northwest of the country.

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