For more than 20 years, neighborhood generators and private generators humming in all the streets of the country between four and ten hours a day during the peaks of summer consumption, recognizes the Ministry of Electricity.

"Without the generators, all of Iraq would be in the dark," summarizes Mr. Jabr, a 62-year-old retiree, in his apartment in the poor district of Sadr City in Baghdad.

"They provide us with electricity for the television, the refrigerator, an air cooler," continues this former public service accountant, who pays 50 dollars a month for this extra electricity.

Energy insecurity or sobriety, load shedding and electricity shortages: with the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices and the flow of Russian gas which has dried up, Europeans are preparing for an unprecedented situation.

In addition to reductions in public lighting, individuals are invited to cap their consumption, by lowering heating and cooking temperatures, for example.

Habits that are already part of the daily life of the 42 million Iraqis, in a country that is nevertheless very rich in oil but undermined by wars and endemic corruption.

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Because subscriptions to private generators do not always make it possible to operate the whole household.

"Depending on the subscription, a customer may have to turn off the refrigerator to run the air conditioner," said Khaled al-Shablawi, who has worked for 13 years for a generator service that provides electricity to 170 homes.

"Houses in the Dark"

Mr. Jabr is not moved by the extinction of the Eiffel Tower at 11:45 p.m. instead of 1:00 a.m.

Or Christmas lights on the Champs Elysées, which will be turned off every evening from 11.45 p.m. instead of 2 a.m.

"It's normal. In our neighborhoods, in the event of a technical problem, the sector can remain a day or two without electricity, until it is repaired", adds the man with a bald head.

He remembers how, immediately after the American invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003, "the houses were plunged into darkness".

The bombings had damaged the infrastructure of an electricity sector already failing since the 1991 Gulf War.

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"We only had power for two or three hours (a day)," he says.

"People had individual generators. They bought fuel and it worked for a day or two."

Today, load shedding is less frequent as soon as autumn arrives.

In summer, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees, the pressure increases on the generators -- and the prices of subscriptions climb.

To alleviate the shortages, which led to sporadic protests in the summer of 2021, Iraq, highly dependent on gas and electricity from neighboring Iran, is seeking to diversify supply and increase production.

"Go back"

It now produces more than 24,000 megawatts (MW) per day, according to the spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, Ahmed Moussa.

A threshold "never reached before", he adds.

But to avoid cuts, it would be necessary to exceed 32,000 MW.

In the meantime, in the summer period, the supply of public electricity can vary from 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. per day, depending on the region, indicates Mr. Moussa.

On an avenue in Sadr City, several private generators follow one another, large engines and fuel tanks hidden by a prefabricated enclosure.

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One of them alone supplies 300 homes and 300 shops.

Climbing along poles, electric cables run throughout the neighborhood.

Owner of a private college with around 300 enrollees, Ali al-Aaraji, 58, deplores the "astronomical sums" spent on the generator at his establishment.

About $600 a month, he says.

"Electricity is an eternal problem for the Iraqis", he regrets, castigating "the American occupation".

If "the Iraqis have been able to bear this situation for three decades", he wonders about the repercussions of the crisis in Europe.

"The source of economic prosperity is energy. Europe is destabilized," he summarizes.

"It will affect their economy, their industry, their trade. They will go back."

© 2022 AFP