Why has it turned so dark in Iran?

A man uses the light of his smart phone in the kitchen of a cafe in Tehran to prepare a food order, during electricity outage on November 12. Iran announced on November 10 that it will impose electricity rationing in Tehran and other provinces from November 11 because of a shortage of fuel in power stations, according to the official IRNA news agency. AFPShow less

An old song about the city of Tehran praises it for being “always full of light”. But this isn’t how most Tehranis are experiencing their city this week. Like other parts of Iran, the city is going through government-organised electricity cuts. Its long highways have gone dark and every home has received a schedule for power cuts. Neighbourhoods have to do without electricity for several hours during daytime.

Despite being energy-rich, Iran is no stranger to electricity cuts, although they are nowhere as common as in countries such as Lebanon, Pakistan or South Africa. This is why many Iranians are reacting with considerable anger. In the city of Shahriar, a baker who had lost much of his products to a power cut, protested by dumping his stock of spoilt sourdough on the streets. A shopkeeper in Zabul voiced outrage at his goods going bad due to his fridge shutting off.

This situation would have been controversial under any circumstances but the explanation provided by the government of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has only added fuel to the fire.

The government is framing the electricity cuts as an environmental protection measure, saying that they were the result of power plants being ordered to stop burning mazut, a particularly dirty and low-grade heavy oil, which is used to generate power in only a few countries in the world, including Iran. Announcing the measure, the government’s spokesperson sounded like she was doing Iranians a favour, declaring that “regulated darkness” was better than “producing poison”.

As expected, Dr Pezeshkian’s political opponents, particularly the more extreme, have jumped on this. The research centre at the hardliner-dominated parliament was quick to produce a report that questions the government’s claim that stopping the use of mazut is the real reason for the electricity cuts.

The real reason is Iran’s lacking sufficient fuels such as diesel fuel or even mazut, it said. In other words, it wasn’t that the government didn’t want to burn mazut but that it simply doesn’t have enough of it or other fuels.

Malek Shariati, a conservative MP, made similar claims and said people were being as hurt by electricity cuts as they would be by air pollution. The Tehran daily Hamshahri, went with the headline: “Will our skies become blue only if the lights go dark?”

A transmission tower in Tehran on November 12. AFP

Placing the blame for Iran’s myriad energy problems on Dr Pezeshkian is absurd. He has been President only since July 28. The previous administration was led by the hardliner president, Ebrahim Raisi. But it’s true that blaming problems on predecessors is a venerable part of the Islamic Republic’s political culture. Raisi himself often blamed the bad hand he had been dealt by the centrist Hassan Rouhani who, in turn, put the blame on another former hardliner president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The truth is that Iran’s electricity problems have been a long time coming. In fact, on the day of Dr Pezeshkian’s inauguration, Tehran was facing power cuts. The presidential office was literally in the dark on that day, an ironic symbol of Iran’s problems.

The Pezeshkian government’s decision to cut electricity in Iranian homes contrasts with the Raisi government’s cutting electricity out of industrial concerns. The latter created less of a hassle in the daily lives of most citizens, but it was arguably more harmful for the country’s long-term economic health.

Vice President, Mohammadreza Aref, made a similar point a few weeks ago when introducing Iran’s new energy minister, Abbas Aliabadi. If the country wants to achieve its goal of eight per cent economic growth, as outlined in its development plan, it couldn’t go through hours of electricity cut at its factories, Mr Aref said.

But Iranians aren’t just upset at the current electricity cuts for the inconvenience of today. They are also worried that this might bode ill for the near future. It’s still only fall and a particularly tough or cold winter could stretch Iran further. Many remember with bitterness how following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, conservative Iranians claimed that Europe was going to face a “tough winter” without regular energy sources from Iran and Russia. Europe was able to avoid a serious crisis in its energy supply but Iran hasn’t been so lucky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 23, 2024. REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov / Pool

Despite boasting of one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, Iran doesn’t produce enough energy to warm all its homes, especially since it also relies on gas export for hard currency. Dr Pezeshkian was hoping to sign a deal with its gas-rich north-eastern neighbour, Turkmenistan, to solve this problem but no satisfactory deal has been coming.

More worryingly, it’s likely that when US president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, he will bring back his policy of "maximum pressure", which would mean a harsher enforcement of sanctions on Iranian oil. If Iran is not able to sell as much oil, it will even have more problems providing the basics for its citizens. The problem will be even worse if Israel attacks Iran’s energy infrastructure, as many have suggested it could. Emboldened by Mr Trump’s election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might want to use such attacks to heighten domestic discontent in Iran.

Like most of its problems, Iran’s energy pains also have to do with its international isolation. Among other things, the US-imposed sanctions prevent Iran from accessing the most up-to-date technology for its power plants. Nevertheless, Iranians are clear-eyed about the roots of their problems. In a poll published last month and reported by the Iranian Students' News Agency, a majority of Iranians blamed mismanagement of resources by authorities as the main reason behind the electricity cuts. “Sanctions” and “mismanagement” have been long cited as twin evils bedeviling the country.

Writing on the current crisis, journalist Reza Ghobeishawi warned in Shargh Daily about an ominous example: Cuba, which recently went through significant electricity cuts. Iran, he said, will await a similar fate unless it worked to lift the sanctions and improve its international stature.