While the Iranian regime has spent a significant portion of the country’s capital over the past 20 years on its nuclear programs under the pretext of “power generation” and the “completion of the Bushehr power plant,” people are facing the recurring problem of widespread power outages as summer temperatures rise in Iran.
The Bushehr nuclear power plant, which has cost billions of dollars to build and has led to numerous sanctions-related issues for the country, has a capacity of only 1,000 megawatts of electricity, whereas the country’s electricity consumption in recent days has been around 77,000 megawatts.
Despite the Iranian regime’s propaganda over the past years and the vast amounts of money spent, the Bushehr nuclear power plant is only able to supply one percent of the country’s electricity needs. This amount of electricity could have been supplied at much lower costs through clean energy sources.
Meanwhile, on Friday, July 12, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, the CEO of Tavanir, the national electricity provider, denied any “planned blackouts,” saying: “We have no plans to publish blackout schedules, and with the cooperation of the people, we will get through this summer without blackouts.”
However, domestic media have reported widespread power outages in 13 provinces on Thursday and more than five-hour outages in some areas of Tehran on Friday.
Experts cite the lack of planning and the government’s actions outside economic frameworks in developmental issues as the main reasons for the energy sector’s imbalance, and they believe that with this style of governance, there is no hope for improvement.
Earlier, the “Donya-e-Eqtesad” newspaper wrote about the reasons behind the current situation: “The discrepancy between income and expenses has led to investors showing little interest in the electricity industry and preferring to invest in other industries. Additionally, the government, which pays heavy subsidies to residential and agricultural consumers, is unable to construct power plants or even pay the claims of power plant owners, contractors, and equipment manufacturers in the electricity industry.”
