ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Over 2.7 million people in the Kurdistan Region enjoy round-the-clock electricity as a result of the expansion of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Runaki Project, the KRG announced on Thursday.

“The Ministry of Electricity is pleased to announce today that more than 2.7 million citizens, or around 40% of the Kurdistan Region population, now have 24-hour electricity under the Runaki programme,” said the KRG in a statement.

“With today’s switch, most citizens across all three major cities of Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok now have access to 24-hour electricity.”

The figure has risen by approximately 700,000 in less than a month, with the number sitting at 2 million earlier in July. 

Erbil takes the greatest share of citizen beneficiaries according to a chart embedded in the KRG’s statement with nearly 1.5 million users, with Sulaimani coming in second with just under a million users, in addition to Duhok’s 288,000. The total number of citizens when added together sits at around 2.72 million users as per the report. 

The initiative has led to over 2,500 private power generators being phased out, with the government shooting for 7,000 private generators by the time the project is fully implemented, which will be replaces with what the statement describes as “clean, reliable and affordable electricity throughout the Kurdistan Region.” 

The Runaki Project is the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG’s) program to provide 24-hour power to residential neighborhoods. The project aims to cover the entirety of the Region by 2026.

The Project was announced by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in October 2024, aiming to eliminate the electricity issues that the Region has struggled with for decades.