Deputy energy minister: the gap between electricity costs and revenue is 395,000 billion tomans, and the government owes the power industry 350,000 billion

A deputy energy minister said on Monday, 27 July 2026 (5 Mordad 1405), that the gap between the full cost of electricity and revenue from its sale stands at 395,000 billion tomans, and that the government owes the power industry 350,000 billion tomans.

He said this situation, together with accumulated debt and a shortage of liquidity, has left the modernisation of the grid and the development of new generation capacity facing serious difficulty. Selling electricity below cost has for years been identified as one of the structural roots of the imbalance in Iran's power network, because it puts investment in power plants and transmission beyond the industry's financial reach.

This year the power shortfall has again translated into operating limits, from the six-hour daily cuts to electricity for agricultural wells reported by the head of the agricultural guilds chamber, to reduced office hours in some provinces to lower the load on the grid. For the capital market, electricity constraints bear directly on output at energy-intensive listed industries such as steel, cement, aluminium and petrochemicals.