ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A nationwide power outage struck Iraq on Monday following a sudden and unexpected failure in the national grid, the electricity ministry said, attributing the blackout to a system overload that led to a complete system shutdown.
According to the ministry, the grid abruptly “lost over 6,000 megawatts, causing a rapid spike in the frequency of generating units and triggering an automatic disconnection across the entire system.”
The outage originated in southern Iraq, where an increase in system loads in Babil and Karbala provinces led to the failure of two major power transmission lines - the Musayyib and Babil 400 kV lines - setting off a devastating domino effect.
Speaking to Rudaw, Adel Karim, undersecretary at the electricity ministry, confirmed that the failure in Babil and Karbala had a “cascading impact on power stations in other provinces.”
“Technical teams are currently working on restoring the power, and in the next few hours, the system will gradually return to normal,” he said.
Karim further noted that while similar incidents have occurred in the past, “nothing of this scale has happened in years.” He also emphasized “the electricity load in Iraq is currently extremely high.”
The strain on the grid comes as millions of pilgrims make their way to Karbala for the Arbaeen pilgrimage, which commemorates the end of the 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE.
In 2024, Arbaeen drew a record 21.5 million pilgrims, according to Karbala’s holy shrine directorate. This year’s pilgrimage is set to culminate in Karbala on August 15.
Of note, the power outage excluded the Kurdistan Region, a development praised by Kurdish officials as a testament to Erbil’s progress in power provision.
In a Monday statement on X, Aziz Ahmad, deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, cautioned that such outages “will continue happening in Iraq until the root causes are addressed: demand, load management, and consumption.”
Ahmad emphasized that the Kurdistan Region's electrical grid remains stable thanks to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Runaki initiative - meaning “light” in Kurdish - and encouraged federal authorities to adopt a similar approach. He affirmed the KRG’s willingness to assist, stating, “We are ready to help fix this longstanding problem, as we are now doing in the Kurdistan Region.”
Runaki is a flagship KRG initiative aimed at reforming and stabilizing the Region’s energy sector. The project seeks to deliver uninterrupted, 24-hour electricity across the Region by the end of 2026. A major component of the plan includes phasing out private diesel generators, long relied upon as backup power sources but criticized for their noise and pollution.
On Thursday, the KRG Ministry of Electricity announced that more than 2,500 private generators have been decommissioned as the Runaki initiative continues to expand, now serving nearly three million people.
Ziyad Ismail contributed to this piece.
Updated at 7:45 pm.