Iraq imports 7 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from Iran to make up the shortfall between domestic power production and the country's needs, a power ministry official said on Wednesday.
Abbas Jabber, electricity ministry undersecretary, told a conference in Cairo that "maybe in three years" Iraq could achieve self-sufficiency but added that it would be a challenge because consumers paid a fraction of the production costs.
Decades of sanctions and conflict have left Iraq, a major oil producer, with a power shortage. Jabber said domestic production capacity was 19.5 GW while the country's needs were 26.5 GW, with the gap filled by Iranian imports.