Cities in Darkness, But What is the Reality?
Cities in darkness, but what is the reality? Reports from domestic media on the start of power outages across Iran to avoid burning mazut in power plants, followed by confirmation of this news by the Tavanir Company, have sparked widespread and generally negative reactions on social networks. While Tavanir announced yesterday that due to increased gas consumption in the residential sector and limited gas fuel supply to power plants, scheduled blackouts will begin, the company’s CEO officially announced on Sunday, November 20th, that these blackouts will start from tomorrow, Monday.
Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi described this action as a power consumption management program and stated that the power outages will be implemented uniformly across the country from 9 AM to 5 PM. He explained that for each subscriber, a daily two-hour electricity consumption restriction will be applied, and in Tehran, the blackout schedule will be communicated to citizens via SMS. Reactions to the news of power outages due to refraining from burning mazut in power plants, which began with the announcement by the government spokesperson and the executive deputy of the president, have intensified since Saturday.
Hamidreza Haji Babaei, Deputy Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, responded to several MPs’ warnings in the public session on Sunday, saying that there are ambiguities about the government’s action.
He called for an explanation from the government on this matter.
Amir Hossein Sabati, a parliamentary representative supporting Saeed Jalili in the recent elections, blamed the electricity shortage on the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA in Network X and wrote that it’s a bitter reality that today we could have avoided electricity imbalance and blackouts if the country had not been run in a Qajar-style in the 90s.
This statement has met with reactions, including from Sadegh Hosseini, an economist close to the reformists, who responded that the limitation of nuclear infrastructure has nothing to do with nuclear electricity production.
Davood Manzoor, head of the Plan and Budget Organization in Ebrahim Raisi’s government, also sarcastically stated in Network X, by publishing a chart of diesel reserves over the past five years, that a successful and alternative solution for scheduled blackouts could have been storing enough liquid fuel for power plants. Meanwhile, Tavanir’s CEO also announced on Sunday that more than 85% of the liquid fuel consumed by power plants is diesel and claimed that only 15% of the liquid fuel used in power plants is mazut.
He acknowledged that in the current situation, there are also restrictions on the amount of diesel consumed by power plants. However, even reformists and supporters of Masoud Pezeshkian’s government have criticized this action, including Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who wrote on Network X that if the reason for power outages in winter and the cold season is due to stopping mazut burning, it is certainly a banana peel that has been placed under Pezeshkian and his government’s feet at the start of their work.
He did not explain who might have done such a thing.
Mohammad Sahafi, another reformist figure and former official of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, also called the decision to cut power a destructive action that is being taken in the emergency conditions at the start of the government.
One of the few supporters of this plan is Mohammad Fazeli, a sociologist and advisor to Masoud Pezeshkian during the election campaigns.
He wrote on Network X that if the government refrains from mazut burning and adheres to limited blackouts and explaining to the public, it has done three important things: 1. prioritized health, 2. not swept the imbalance under the rug, and 3. accepted the social pressure to solve the issue in the right way.
Meanwhile, according to government officials, Mr. Pezeshkian has only ordered the cessation of mazut burning in three power plants.
Mohammad Aghazadeh, a veteran journalist, also pointed out the headline of the Etemad newspaper on Sunday, which wrote ‘The Sky Becomes Bluer,’ and addressed Elias Hazrati, the owner of the newspaper, saying, ‘Yes, Mr. Hazrati, in the dark and the same blackout, the blue sky can be seen more, but in the shivering cold, is there any energy left to watch the sky?’
Mr. Hazrati was appointed as the head of the government’s Information Council a few weeks ago.
Some citizens, journalists, and critics of the Islamic Republic also reminded that the state of the country’s administration has reached a point where people either have to endure blackouts or bear the pollution caused by burning mazut.
Pezhman Mousavi, a journalist, criticized that the government, having lost opportunities to build green and renewable power plants, now has to boast that because we have banned mazut burning in some power plants, you too must endure power outages, attaching a planned phrase to make your decisions appear very chic.
Some social media users have also reported that following Tavanir’s announcement yesterday to visit the electricity distribution company’s website, the servers of this website have crashed. According to the IT Iran news and analysis site, the services announced for viewing the blackout schedules have failed, and for many citizens, the blackout notification SMS has not been sent.
Bahman Darolshafaee, a journalist and translator, wrote in this regard that not only do we lack the ability to supply electricity, but we also lack the ability to launch a sustainable method to inform the blackout schedule, which we have touted to the people. Reza Rashidpour, a former television presenter and supporter of Masoud Pezeshkian’s government, also published an image of the headline from the Islamic Republic News Agency on December 8, 2023, quoting the director general of the thermal power company’s production planning office, which stated that mazut burning in Tehran’s power plants is strongly denied, saying that power cuts are certainly subject to criticism, but dare I say, aren’t you the same ones who denied mazut burning?
Elmira Sharifi, a television presenter and announcer, also wrote on Network X that officials should better explain the benefits of stopping mazut burning. How long will the power outages continue? If mazut burning continues in some power plants, we will not have any issues with electricity distribution. In Iran, warnings have been issued for years about the effects of mazut burning as a silent killer on citizens, but at least no official research has been published in this regard.
However, over the years, some institutions have completely denied the widespread use of mazut in Iran, while others have claimed that mazut burning occurs outside cities or that mazut is not burned around any major city.
Mazut is a type of fuel oil with low quality and high viscosity, used in thermal power plants and similar applications. Viscosity refers to the resistance of liquids to flow.