Increased Turkish electricity flows to Iraq could take 'a few months': Entso-e

It could be "a few months" before Turkish electricity can begin flowing into Iraq, the European regulating body Entso-e told Platts March 24.

Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar told Platts March 20 that Turkey would start sending an additional 300 MW of electricity to Iraq once it receives approval from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, or Entso-e.

Iraq is looking for additional electricity after the US abruptly ended waivers that allowed the Middle Eastern country to import sanctioned Iranian electricity, which accounted for about 3% of the country's power demand.

"The decisions about this type of electricity system extensions to a zone that is outside the control areas of the Continental Europe TSOs [transmission system operators] are taken a few months after the request if all the necessary technical data is provided by the requesting TSO," a spokesperson for Entso-e said in a written statement.

Bayraktar said March 20 that Turkey had submitted all required paperwork to Entso-e. Following approval, the capacity of the Cizre-Kasek line will be increased to 600 MW, taking the total interconnection capacity between Turkey and Iraq to 930 MW, he said.

The request to verify if the technical conditions for the extension are met will be reviewed by the technical groups under Regional Group Continental Europe, and the decision to increase the supply to Iraq will be made during the plenary meeting where all Continental European TSOs are represented, the spokesperson said.

"Iraq needs this capacity increase before summer. So, we prepared our schedule in parallel with Iraq's needs," Turkey's Bayraktar told Platts previously.

Iraq's power plants operate with some feedstock flexibility, and an analyst previously told Platts that Iraq would be able to burn more crude in the short term to make up for the lost supply.

But with Iraqi crude production constrained by its OPEC quota, it could prove a challenge to rely more heavily on crude for power generation while maintaining quota compliance – something it has already struggled to do. Iraq on March 19 submitted a compensation plan to OPEC to voluntarily cut a cumulative 1.954 million b/d from April through June 2026.