Session (7) Second Term / First Year

The Council of Representatives held on (27/7/2026) its seventh session of the second legislative term of the first legislative year of the sixth electoral cycle, chaired by Speaker Haibat Al-Halbousi, with (210) in attendance. The session included:

- The Speaker welcomed the attendance of the Minister of Electricity, Mr. Ali Saadi Wahib, and the ministry's senior staff, explaining that the hosting aims to discuss the state of electricity and the ministry's plans to address the failures and obstacles in energy production, distribution and supply, in addition to examining solutions for the current summer season and the coming periods, stressing the need to find possible alternatives according to realistic plans set by the ministry, and declaring the Council of Representatives' readiness to provide the necessary support to improve the state of electricity provided that the ministry works along a correct course to overcome the problems and failures.

- The Minister of Electricity spoke about the problems the ministry suffers from in producing and distributing electric power, explaining that the need to address the problems cannot be confined to a defined time ceiling, since the state of the electricity system has declined to 22 thousand megawatts at present — after having been 27,000 megawatts in the past period — due to some stations going out of service as a result of the shortage of fuel supply from the Kurdistan Region and Turkey, in addition to the loss of 3,000 megawatts after the gas supply stopped and the Amarah station was damaged and went out of service due to a fire. He noted that Iraq's need for electric power is 60 thousand megawatts, while current production represents one third of the required production, and power losses have reached 60% due to encroachment on transmission lines — a high percentage compared with the global energy standard. He explained that the Iraqi delegation, in its visit to the United States of America, focused on discussing the electricity file and securing some facilitations regarding a mechanism for paying part of the financial dues owed to the Iranian side for the value of imported gas; noted the visit of a government delegation to Ankara to restore the interconnection between Iraq and Turkey at 600 megawatts; indicated that the Khor Mor field stopped supplying gas due to a security threat, and that resuming pumping requires securing the field from targeting to achieve 1,600 megawatts of power; and explained that the Ministry of Electricity's financial allocation within the three-year budget amounted to more than 48 trillion dinars operational and 5.8 trillion dinars investment for the previous three years.
For his part, the Ministry Undersecretary for Production Affairs explained that the maintenance plan followed by the ministry runs from mid-September until April of each year, targeting the maintenance of 15,000 megawatts across all stations, adding that the exception of heavy equipment maintenance at the Wasit power station was due to the current regional situation.

- The Minister of Electricity proposed that investment projects seek their own source of electricity until the peak period passes, referring to the need for a legislative remedy concerning the collection tariff for the price of a kilowatt-hour. He noted that the need requires investing in electricity at the level of each governorate with a binding timetable for the investing party to improve the level of power, explaining that the ministry is working on diversifying electricity production sources and that the government attaches importance to reforming and developing Iraq's electricity sector gradually, presenting a plan within the government program to add 7,000 megawatts to the electricity system to reach the level of 35,000 megawatts by 2030. He explained that the ministry signed a memorandum of principles with the American company GE to improve the level of power, in addition to another line represented by the electrical interconnection with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, along with the ministry's efforts to find alternatives with the Ministry of Oil until conditions in the region stabilize.

- The Speaker directed the Oil and Energy Committee to host the Minister of Oil to examine the ministry's plans to supply the power stations with associated and free gas for the optimal investment of energy.

- First Deputy Speaker Adnan Faihan noted the existence of poor planning and management in the electricity file, which produced many failures requiring remedy, foremost among them the corruption that caused the waste of vast funds allocated to the electricity sector, stressing the importance of reviewing the ministry's plan to combat corruption and improve the administrative situation, along with stating the solutions the ministry sets under the difficult circumstances the region is witnessing.
For his part, Deputy Speaker Farhad Al-Atrushi stressed the importance of the Ministry of Electricity directing its efforts toward strategic planning and setting clear, comprehensive plans for the production, transmission and distribution sectors, with emphasis on identifying the defects, finding alternatives, and attending to the privatization file.

- The MPs' interventions focused on demands to distribute the available electric power fairly among the governorates; to review some of the contracts awarded for investment in gas fields that yielded no benefit; to inquire about the implementation of the government program concerning energy and the reasons for its continued deterioration, with the need to set a timetable for ending the crisis; for the ministry to set a work plan for the current and subsequent phases and a clear vision, especially given the financial allocations dedicated to the energy file; to review the state of supply in all governorates according to population count; and to point to investing in solar energy projects and facilitating their provision to citizens through soft loans.

- The interventions touched on the debts of the industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential sectors, and the extent of commitment between the Ministries of Electricity and Oil on the fuel supply file, along with stressing the importance of the optimal use of energy and not wasting it; obligating the investors of residential complexes to establish power stations to supply the complexes with electricity; inquiring about the rationale of repeating station maintenance and expansion contracts at enormous amounts with major foreign companies; and calling for opening all electricity project contracting files in order to evaluate the Ministry of Electricity's work.

- Voting on a set of recommendations to address the electricity crisis, which provided for: opening all corruption files at the Ministry of Electricity since 2005 and referring the violations established at the Ministry of Electricity to the Integrity Commission and the judiciary; obligating the Ministry of Electricity to present a detailed annual plan before each summer season including completion rates, timetables and performance indicators, subject to periodic evaluation before the Council of Representatives; reviewing all investment contracts of projects concluded through exemptions or otherwise that were proven to have no technical or economic feasibility, and taking legal measures against those responsible for wasting public funds; the Ministry of Electricity adopting a national renewable energy program through expanding the use of solar energy systems for homes and the agricultural and industrial sectors to relieve pressure on the national grid and reduce fuel consumption; tasking the Central Bank of Iraq, in coordination with government and private banks, to launch an accessible financing initiative granting loans to every citizen wishing to install a solar energy system, with subsidized or zero interest, comfortable repayment periods and simplified guarantees; obligating the Ministry of Electricity to establish a technical and administrative mechanism to facilitate connecting solar energy systems to the national grid and simplify its procedures; obligating the Ministry of Oil to provide sufficient fuel to operate the power stations, especially in the current difficult circumstances, with recalculating the distributed loads across the governorates; in addition to forming a joint committee comprising representatives of the parliamentary committees of Electricity, Finance, Planning, Investment, Oil, Services and Integrity, which undertakes following up the implementation of these recommendations and submitting its report to the Council on completion rates and obstacles. (Recommendations link) The Council of Representatives votes on recommendations to address the electricity crisis and refers them to the government

- The Speaker thanked the Minister of Electricity and the ministry's staff for examining the precise details related to the electricity crisis, expressing the Council of Representatives' readiness to provide support to advance the state of electricity.
The session was then adjourned.