Iran Loses 4,200 MW as Strikes, Heatwave Cripple Grid
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- Iran's national grid lost 4,200 megawatts of capacity with damage to more than 2,000 network points, according to National Electricity Company CEO Mohammad Allahdad, after US strikes hit a power plant on Kish Island and distribution networks in Bandar Abbas, Jask, and Chabahar.
- Mobarakeh Steel Company (1,400 MW) and Khouzestan Steel (600 MW) stopped drawing power after US-Israeli air strikes, theoretically freeing roughly 2,000 MW — but the Mahshahr petrochemical complex, once a surplus generator, now draws from the grid, Tehran University economist Bahman Arman told Al Jazeera.
- Tehran City Council Chairman Mehdi Chamran dismissed questions about unannounced blackouts by citing recent bombings of electrical facilities: "If you knew how many electrical facilities were bombed two days ago, you wouldn't ask this question."
- Iranian industrial zones now face four-to-six-hour daily blackouts, slashing production and exports, former Iran Chamber of Commerce head Hossein Selahvarzi told Al Jazeera — compounding wartime damage to non-oil export infrastructure.
- President Pezeshkian and Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi had promised a disruption-free summer days before the US-Israel war broke out in February; that promise has collapsed under a severe heatwave and renewed strikes.
- The proposed Bakhtiari Dam could generate 2,600 megawatts but requires $500 million in foreign currency and up to five years to build — a timeline economist Arman said Iran "no longer has the luxury of."
Why it matters: Iran's non-oil export engine is buckling under four-to-six-hour daily industrial blackouts while its two largest steel mills remain offline from strikes, and the only meaningful long-term fix — the 2,600 MW Bakhtiari Dam — demands $500 million and five years Iran cannot spare. For ordinary Iranians, the crisis translates into postponed university exams, spoiled perishables, and ventilator-dependent patients running on backup systems in neighborhoods plunged into darkness.
