Explosions reduce supply electricity rate in third of Iraq

The Ministry of Electricity and local officials said on Thursday that the rate of supplying electrical energy in six Iraqi governorates, including the capital, Baghdad, had decreased due to the targeting of power transmission towers in Diyala Governorate with roadside bombs.

The Ministry of Electricity said in a statement today that al- Muqdadiya 132-kV lines in eastern and Baghdad-Amin 400 kV were subjected to targeting with roadside bombs led to the fall of the transmission lines towers, which resulted in losing approximately 1500 megawatts of service and determining the system loads on both sides of Karkh from Baghdad, north-eastern Rusafa and Kirkuk governorates Anbar, Salahuddin and Nineveh.

The statement added that today Mirsad-Diyala 400kv line was targeted also and it is out of service.

During the past 48 hours, ISIS bombed 4 electricity transmission towers in the outskirts of Muqdadiya (40 km northeast of Baquba) and Bahrez district (7 km south of Baquba), which caused the decline in electricity supplies throughout the province.

For his part, Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Mosa told “Alghadeer News” that “for the third day in a raw, some groups targeted power transmission lines as a result of the great success achieved by the ministry in supplying operating hours that reached an average of 24 hours in all Iraqi provinces”.

He added that “terrorist groups targeted the power transmission line in Al-Hawija district, eastern Baghdad lines, Al-Amin and Diyala lines,” noting that “the lines are out of service for being targeted by roadside bombs”.

“The maintenance staffs in the ministry headed to a place of the accident and are working to restore the lines to work,” noting that “this terrorist targeting caused a load on Baghdad in the areas of Karkh and East Rusafa, in addition to Salahuddin, Kirkuk, Anbar and Nineveh provinces,” Mosa said.

It is noteworthy that Iraq suffers from a shortage of electric power supplies since 1990, after the United Nations imposed a blockade on Iraq, and the problem worsened after 2003, as the hours of power faultier increased to about 20 hours per day, which increased the reliance of the people on small and private power generators.