As power outages continue in various cities across Iran due to electricity shortages, Mehdi Bastanchi, the regime’s head of the Coordination Council of Industrial Towns, stated that power cuts in some industrial areas of Tehran have led to street protests.
On Monday, August 26, Bastanchi wrote, “Yesterday, street protests occurred in the Khavaran Industrial Town due to a power outage.”
This industrial official added on his X account that electricity in Khavaran Town, which is “the largest industrial town in Tehran,” was cut off on Monday and is scheduled to be out for another 24 hours starting Tuesday.
In recent weeks, numerous reports have surfaced about the two-week closure of some factories in Mashhad at the request of the electricity department and the shutdown of certain shifts in Tehran’s industrial towns. Some of these reports were denied or corrected by government officials.
A few days ago, Samad Hassanzadeh, the head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Mines, stated that power outages in production units have disrupted the activities of the private sector.
In his latest message, Bastanchi also mentioned that small and medium-sized industries in industrial towns are “dying.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Tavanir, Iran’s national electricity company, announced that due to the extreme heat, which has been “unprecedented in the last 50 years,” all electricity consumers must reduce their consumption by 10%.
Last year, the electricity supply deficit in Iran was 16%, but this year it has increased to 22%. The chairman of Iran’s Electricity Syndicate also warned that the electricity shortfall could reach 37% in the next ten years.
Official statistics from the Ministry of Energy show that 13% of the country’s generated electricity is lost in the outdated and worn-out transmission and distribution network. This significant figure is equivalent to 40% of the country’s total household electricity consumption.
