Iran denies cutting power supply to Iraq

Iraq's dilapidated power sector needs all the help it can get.

Iran on Tuesday rejected media reports alleging that it had stopped supplying Iraq with electricity, writes the Iran Daily newspaper.

"Iran has not stopped export of electricity to Iraq," deputy energy minister for electricity and energy affairs Mohammad Behzad reportedly told the state-run Fars news agency, adding that currently close to 500 megawatt of electricity is being exported to its neighour.

"The electricity exports to Iraq are carried out at five or six different points currently and what is heard about stopping Iran's electricity exports from (the western city of) Kermanshah to Diyala (province) in Iraq is not true," Behzad said.

Yet he didn't dismiss the possibility of a drop in the voltage of the transferred electricity as a result of the hot summertime weather, says the Iran Daily.

Iraqi state television reported that Iran had stopped supplying Iraq's national grid with the 250MW it transfers from the Iranian province of Kermanshah to the Iraqi Diyala province, says the paper.

In addition, the paper reports that Mohammad Mostafa Najafian, managing director of Kurdistan’s electricity department, revealed that the Iranian Electricity Distribution Company will supply electricity to the Iraqi national via Bashmag in northern Iraq.

"According to an agreement inked between the two sides, the Iranian company will supply 500 to 1,000 kilowatt of electricity to the Iraqi national grid at Bashmaq border point," Najafian said.

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