“As part of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to provide 24-hour power, the Ministry of Electricity will provide 24-hour electricity to eight other neighborhoods in Erbil including Kuran, Rizgari, Kurdistan, Bahar, Krekaran, Azadi, Majidawa, and Rasti,” the KRG’s electricity ministry said in a statement.
The initiative, dubbed Runaki - or “light” in Kurdish - aims to provide round-the-clock power across the Kurdistan Region by the end of 2026.
According to the electricity ministry, technical work has begun to spread the project to Sulaimani and Duhok, and “in the next few weeks, several neighborhoods in these provinces will be provided with 24-hour electricity.”
The KRG Ministry of Electricity announced tonight that eight new neighbourhoods in Erbil, comprising nearly 30,000 homes and businesses, switched to 24/7 power at midnight.
— Aziz Ahmad (@azizkahmad) February 5, 2025
The first neighbourhoods in Suli and Duhok will move to 24/7 power in the next few weeks too.#Runaki… pic.twitter.com/pRRWKCxX7g
A source from the project team told Rudaw that four to eight additional neighborhoods will be included in the initiative in its next phase.
“In Sulaimani and Duhok, the electricity will be made 24 hours by the end of this month,” the source added.
But many private generator owners are unhappy with the details of the latest step, saying that contracts previously agreed upon with the KRG to provide emergency power for the next six months have been adjusted.
“We are [operating in] eleven neighborhoods. The contract previously agreed upon with the neighborhoods that switched to 24-hour electricity was 2.5 million [dinars] for generator owners to be on standby during emergencies, but the amount has been changed to 1 million [dinars],” a private generator owner told Rudaw.
Another generator owner said that the funds allocated in the new contract do not cover the salary of their employees and the fuel they need to buy.
Unreliable electricity is a frequent headache in the Kurdistan Region. High demand, financial problems, and shortage of fuel supplies mean power stations in the Kurdistan Region cannot always operate at full capacity and the electricity ministry has been incapable of providing round-the-clock power.
When the national supply cuts out, people rely on private diesel-fueled generators that are costly and polluting.