Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iraq has announced that it is ready to pay debt electricity import to Iran, IRIB quoted Iraqi electricity minister Karim Aftan as saying.
In a meeting with Iranian energy minister Hamid Chitchian in Tehran, the Iraqi minister said that the two sides have found a problem-free mechanism to pay the debt.
"Iraq needs to import more electricity from Iran in order to secure 24-hour supply of electricity," Aftan said, adding that the way should be paved for Iranian companies to take part in tenders which are held in Iraq.
On November 2, Iranian Deputy Energy Minister, Houshang Falahatian said that Iran has accepted Iraq's demand on increasing the volume of electricity export by 500 megawatts.
"At the present, about 1,500 megawatts of electricity is being exported to Iraq daily," Falahatian said.
Falahatian also remarked that, Iraq has not paid yet its debts to Iran for electricity imports during the last severalyears.
Later in September, Iranian media outlets quoted managing director of Iran Power Generation Transmission and Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR), Homayoun Haeri saying that Iraq owes Iran some $400 million for electricity imports.
Iran exports $800 million worth of electricity to neighboring countries each year, he added.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. The country's power generation capacity is currently at 68.38 GW.
Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of three new power plants.
