Al-Zubair district without power for over 24 hours after major feeders fail

BASRA — Residents of Al-Zubair district, Basra, have been without electricity for more than 24 hours after four main feeders went out of service early Tuesday morning, according to the district’s Control and Operations Department.

The feeders supply several neighborhoods. The outage began at 4 a.m. Tuesday and continued into Wednesday.

Hussein Abdul Nabi, head of the Control and Operations Department, told 964media, “Efforts have been ongoing since yesterday to gradually restore service to the affected areas.”

Neighborhoods impacted include New and Old Marbad, Al-Dhawihirat, Al-Muntafij, Suq Suwadi, the old industrial area, Suq Haraj, Al-Kubayeh (Al-Dawanem), Burjesiya Street, Bayt Al-Hajj Tuwaina Street, Al-Garnawi, and 9 Nisan area.

Officials said the outage was caused by a technical failure in a mobile line between Al-Draihimiya and Al-Narjis due to cable damage. Maintenance crews have been working since early Tuesday and expect to restore service to parts of the affected areas in the coming hours.

Much of Iraq was without electricity last Monday as extreme heat and heavy demand during the Arbaeen pilgrimage triggered a nationwide power outage. The Ministry of Electricity said high load on the grid in Karbala and Babel governorates caused the shutdown of two main transmission lines, Musayyib–Babel 400 kV (lines 1 and 2). The sudden disconnection led to the loss of more than 6,000 megawatts from the national grid, destabilizing generation frequencies and forcing all power units offline.