Overview

• Two transmission lines serving Babylon and Karbala tripped under record 48–50°C temperatures and pilgrim-driven demand, causing an accidental loss of over 6,000 MW and halting power plants nationwide.
• The outage on August 11 left most of Iraq in the dark, sparing the autonomous Kurdistan region whose modernized grid supplied about a third of its population.
• Electricity ministry teams are conducting a staged restoration, with power already returned to Dhi Qar and Maysan and Basra scheduled to regain service by Tuesday dawn.
• State generation has reached roughly 28,000 MW this month against an estimated 55,000 MW peak need, leaving many households reliant on private generators that often cannot run air conditioners.
• Meteorological officials warn the heatwave will persist for more than a week, heightening public health risks and underscoring the need for major transmission upgrades and capacity expansion.