Sulaymaniyah private generators to resume operations amid ongoing electricity shortages

SULAYMANIYAH — Private generators in Sulaymaniyah will resume operations following an agreement reached Tuesday between local officials and generator owners, as the Kurdistan Region enters its fourth day of severe power shortages.

Acting Sulaymaniyah district commissioner Fazil Omar told 964media that a meeting at the governorate building resulted in an agreement for generators to operate from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., and again from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m., when national grid power is unavailable.

The shortages stem from Dana Gas’s suspension of natural gas supplies from the Khor Mor field, ordered “to protect the lives of employees” amid “the abnormal situation and the war in the region.” The halt removed between 2,500 and 3,000 megawatts from the grid. Khor Mor was last forced offline in November, when a drone strike on its storage facilities caused widespread blackouts across the region.

Before the shutdown, the KRG had been delivering 24-hour power across much of the region through the Runaki program. In neighborhoods where Runaki had made private generators redundant, residents were left without an immediate backup when the grid went down. Residents of Dukan district blocked the main road to Sulaymaniyah for the third time in two days on Monday night in protest.