Iranians face daily blackouts amid war and heatwave
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Iranians are enduring daily power blackouts as a severe heatwave and renewed US military strikes cripple the national grid. The outages have disrupted university exams, spoiled perishable goods, and raised life-threatening risks for patients reliant on medical equipment.
The Blackout Crisis
Power outages have become a daily reality across Iran, with the national grid losing 4,200 megawatts of capacity, according to national electricity company CEO Mohammad Allahdad. Damage to more than 2,000 points in the network, including US strikes on a power plant on Kish Island and distribution networks in Bandar Abbas, Jask and Chabahar, has compounded technical failures from extreme heat. In Tehran, small business owners rely on portable generators, traffic lights are dark, and police manually direct traffic.
Broken Promises
The crisis contradicts official assurances made just days before the US-Israel war on Iran began in February, when President Masoud Pezeshkian and Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi promised a summer without electricity disruptions. Tehran City Council Chairman Mehdi Chamran retorted to a journalist: "If you knew how many electrical facilities were bombed two days ago, you wouldn't ask this question." The outages have postponed 38 university exams at Sharif University of Technology alone.
Life-or-Death Consequences
For patients reliant on home ventilators or refrigerated medicines, power cuts pose immediate mortal danger, as student Moein told Al Jazeera. Hospitals have largely remained insulated, using backup systems to keep intensive care units running while surrounding neighborhoods go dark. The full human toll remains unclear, with one student warning: "We only see the tip of the iceberg."
What's Next
The government is expected to announce emergency measures in the coming days, but no timeline for grid restoration has been provided. It remains unclear whether the US will halt strikes on energy infrastructure or if the heatwave will ease, prolonging the crisis.
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Iranians face daily blackouts amid war and heatwave
