Iran likely to face more power cuts this winter

TEHRAN: Iranians are likely to endure further power cuts this winter despite their country’s huge oil and gas reserves, Energy Minister Parviz Fattah warned in comments published on Wednesday. “There is a possibility of blackouts in autumn and winter,” the Etemad newspaper quoted the minister as saying.

Fattah said cheap electricity and the resulting high levels of consumption were to blame for the inability to meet demand.


A severe drought in many parts of the country has also hit hydroelectric power generation.

He said that the energy ministry, which urgently needs 40 trillion rials (more than $4 billion) to pay its debts, found itself in the middle of a row between the government and Parliament over pricing.

Iran’s previous conservative-dominated parliament froze energy and fuel prices in March 2005 – before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election – as a “gift to the Iranian people.”

“It has to back down and change its decision,” Fattah said.

The Daily Star