Residents gather outside the Dukan district administration building during a nighttime protest over electricity shortages
Dukan residents block road for third time in two days over electricity shortages
SULAYMANIYAH — Residents of Dukan district blocked the main road to Sulaymaniyah for the third time in two days on Monday night, protesting electricity shortages that have left much of the Kurdistan Region with only three to four hours of power per day.
“Since yesterday, this is the third time we have closed the road, and we will not leave until our demands are met,” Mohammed Jalal, a protester from Dukan, told 964media. He said residents had received only four hours of electricity in the past 24 hours and that the situation was particularly unacceptable for Dukan, which itself contributes to electricity production. “We do not have private neighborhood generators inside the district,” he added.
Protesters gathered outside the Dukan district administration building demanding a solution. Attempts to reach district commissioner Sirwan Lala Sarhad and electricity director Mahdi Abdulrahman were unsuccessful.
The shortages began after Dana Gas suspended natural gas supplies from the Khor Mor field, citing “the abnormal situation and the war in the region” — a reference to the ongoing conflict following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory missile and drone launches across the region, which have repeatedly targeted sites in the Kurdistan Region including Erbil’s Harir Air Base, the U.S. Consulate and Iranian Kurdish opposition camps.
The decision to take the field offline was a precautionary measure to protect staff. A drone strike that hit Khor Mor in November 2025 forced a prolonged shutdown and substantial damage to the site.
As the main fuel source for Kurdistan Region power plants, its suspension removed between 2,500 and 3,000 megawatts from the grid.
Before the shutdown, the KRG had been delivering 24-hour grid power across much of the region in recent months through the landmark Runaki program. In neighborhoods where Runaki had made private generators redundant, residents found themselves without an immediate backup when the grid went down.
In Erbil, the Private Generator Owners Association met Monday evening and decided to resume operations, with households to be charged 5,000 Iraqi dinars per ampere. Government authorities have not announced when full electricity supplies will be restored.