Iranians are suffering from power outages during the war and the heat | US-Israel War on Iran News

Tehran, Iran On a subway in Iran’s capital, Kamran and Moein, two students at Sharif University of Technology, are looking at a cell phone, watching a video of a frustrated ice cream salesman angry that 180kg (400lb) of his merchandise has melted due to a power outage.

The video also involved 22-year-old Kamran. A few days earlier, a power outage had caused his university’s servers to go offline during final exams. As a result, the electronic test platforms disappeared, and 38 tests were postponed until next month.

“The power outage has disrupted and disrupted all our plans,” Mr Kamran told Al Jazeera. You don’t even want to study because you don’t know if the test will actually happen. You can read all night, only to wake up to find that everything has failed because the lights have gone out.

For 24-year-old Moein, the problem is about to go beyond a suspended university exam. “Ask patients who rely on air conditioning systems in their homes or who keep essential medications in the refrigerator,” he said. “For them, the decline in power is not a procrastination test, but a matter of life and death. We only see the tipping point.”

Broken promises and bombed weapons

The problem is becoming less clear to the Iranian people because it defies many guarantees. Just days before the United States-Israeli war broke out in Iran in February, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi promised a summer without blackouts.

These promises have changed in the wake of the intense heatwave and further fighting by US forces in southern Iran, making the slow-moving exodus a daily occurrence across the country.

When asked by a reporter about the sudden, unexpected power outage, the Chairman of the Tehran City Council, Mehdi Chamran, replied: “If you knew how many lights were blown up by bombs two days ago, you would not have asked this question.”

The head of the international electricity company Mohammad Allahdad confirmed the extent of the damage, referring to the 4,200-megawatt drop in the power grid and the damage of more than 2,000 points in the internet. Local media reported that the US strike on the island of Kish and the extensive damage to the distribution networks in Bandar Abbas, Jask and Chabahar have increased the technical failure caused by the extreme heat.

Al Jazeera’s visit to Tehran revealed a city dealing with a long-term decline. Small business owners rely on portable generators to save damaged goods. Large digital signs go dark, and police manually direct traffic on the highway when the lights fail. Hospitals, however, remained cordoned off, relying on virtual machines to keep intensive care units running while surrounding communities fell into darkness.

A painful paradox

Why do power shortages persist, especially when many industrial consumers do not have internet access? Bahman Arman, a professor of economics at the University of Tehran and a former adviser to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, saw a paradox in the country’s energy consumption.

Iran’s largest power users, Mobarakeh Steel Company in Isfahan and Khouzestan Steel, stopped drawing power after being hit by US and Israeli jets during what is known as Iran’s Ramadan war. “Mobarakeh alone consumed about 1,400 megawatts and Khouzestan about 600. This should add 2,000 megawatts to the national grid,” Arman told Al Jazeera.

But the Mahshahr oil refinery, which previously produced more than the national supply, was also bombed. “Now, instead of providing power, it relies on the grid to meet its needs,” Arman said. “Additional sources have become sources of deficit.”

Although the monsoon rains are increasing the output of hydroelectric power this year, the decay in the system is the main cause.

Arman said: “The war was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “The beginning of the problem is the lack of money. We have a high risk of power outages in the grid, aging transmission sources and inability to build new plants.

Industrial cost

Arman stressed that short-term maintenance is to upgrade existing plants while long-term megaprojects – such as the Bakhtiari Dam, which will generate 2,600 megawatts – require an injection of $500m in foreign capital for up to five years to complete. Iran is not having a good time.

Meanwhile, industrial overload threatens to disrupt the economy. Hossein Selahvarzi, former head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, warned that industrial areas are experiencing power outages of four to six hours a day.

“Cutting industrial capacity reduces production, raises costs, slows down orders and stops exports,” Selahvarzi told Al Jazeera. Energy restrictions, including damage to equipment caused by the war, have put a lot of pressure on Iran’s export engine Nonoil.

With winter gas shortages already an annual risk, the coming months look grim for factory owners trying to recover from wartime losses. For the Iranian people, the question running through their dark streets is how long they can endure as the war’s destruction is met with irreparable damage.