TEHRAN- Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that Iran and Iraq's power grids have become synchronized since a month ago via the new Amarah-Karkheh 400-KV transmission line stretching over 73 kilometers.

The new line is now synchronized to provide electricity to both countries. It also paves the way for increasing export to power-hungry Iraq in the near future, Fars news agency reported.

With the synchronization of the two grids, the quality of electricity in Iraq will improve. 

In 2004 Iran started selling electricity to Iraq. Iran's electricity exports to the western neighbor are at its highest level of 1,361 megawatts per day now.

Last year, Ardakanian and Iraqi Deputy Minister of Electricity Nafaa Abdulsada Ali Al-Hmidawi inaugurated the operation of linking Iran’s power grid to Iraq.

The operation was aimed at bringing more sustainability for Iran and Iraq's electricity supply, setting the ground for electricity exports, and ensure the improvement of the supply grid.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of Iran Grid Management Company Davood Farrokhzad said that electricity exports to Iraq will increase through more preparations.

Iranian and Iraqi dispatching centers were connected in Baghdad and the power grids were interlinked, he added.

He said that Iran’s electricity export to Iraq is at its highest level.

Last Wednesday, Ardakanian met with his Iraqi counterpart Majid Mahdi Hantoush to discuss the development of cooperation in the field of electricity and related areas.

Aradakanian has focused his one-day visit to Iraq on discussions pertaining to promoting bilateral collaboration between the two neighboring nations in the field of electricity, synchronizing power grid between Tehran and Baghdad, cooperating in education, and expansion of power networks.

He is also scheduled to meet with Iraqi top officials in a bid to boost cooperation in the relevant fields.

Back in December 2019, Ardakanian announced that Iran will continue exports of electricity to Iraq by renewing an earlier contract.

"Iran has signed a 3-year-long cooperation agreement with Iraq to help the country's power industry in different aspects. The documents state at its end that we will export electricity to Iraq as far as they need," Ardakanian told FNA on December 9, 2019.

The contract to "export Iran's electricity" to Iraq will be extended, he added.

Iran’s electricity exports to the neighboring countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) reached 8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), registering an increase of 27.6 percent year on year.

According to Iranian Electrical Power Equipment Manufacturing and Provision Company (known by its Persian acronym SATKAB), the Islamic Republic of Iran exported electricity to Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in the past calendar year.

Iran's total energy exports to the mentioned countries in the previous year stood at 8.31 billion kilowatt-hours, 1.736 billion kWh more than the figure for the preceding year.

The highest electricity export in the said period was 6.652 billion kWh to Iraq, up 34.6 percent from the preceding year of 1397, followed by Afghanistan (775 million kWh) and Pakistan (516 million kWh). Armenia (53 million kWh) and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (33 million kWh).

Electricity imports in the previous year amounted to about 1.329 billion kWh, of which 1.294 billion kWh were from Armenia and 34 million kWh was imported from the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan.

Based on the mentioned data, Iran’s electricity exports were six times more than the country’s imports.

Iran’s electricity exports to its neighbors are witnessing an upward trend in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) as well, so that in the first 45 days of the year electricity exports reached 436 million kWh, 19 percent more than the figure for the last year’s same period.

Iran has had electricity exchanges with most of its neighbors namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, as well as the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic among which Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have been solely importers of Iran’s electricity.