The report of the Parliament Research Center regarding the state of energy poverty in Iran highlights fundamental issues in the quality and sustainability of energy supply. While the electricity and gas networks have been extensively developed, the quality of services and the sustainability of this supply have become serious challenges.
Energy Imbalance; From Access to Quality
According to this report, although access to electricity and gas networks has been provided for most households, the increase in power outages and disruptions in gas supply to industries indicates that nominal access to energy does not equate to real and sustainable provision. The average power outages in the electricity sector have increased from 3.64 minutes per day in 2022 to 19.21 minutes in 2024. This significant growth reflects serious challenges in energy management and supply in the country.
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Impact of Pricing Policies on Imbalance
The report also refers to the relationship between energy pricing policies and the formation of imbalance. Keeping electricity and gas prices at low levels reduces financial pressure on consumers, but this policy can diminish the incentive for savings and investment in infrastructure. Meanwhile, the demand for higher consumption increases due to the gap between prices and the actual cost of energy supply. Ultimately, this situation leads to a gap between supply and demand and an increase in outages.
Energy poverty in Iran has now changed in such a way that instead of lacking access to energy, the quality and continuity of access to energy have become the main issue. Outages can have negative impacts on economic activities, quality of life, and even ancillary costs for households. For industries, power and gas outages can halt production and increase operational costs.
Alongside these issues, data limitations have also been raised as another challenge in this report. Lack of access to transparent data makes independent assessment of network performance and detailed examination of imbalance dimensions difficult. Thus, the map of energy poverty in Iran more clearly represents the gap between "access" and "sustainable supply."
In conclusion, the findings of this report clearly indicate that the main issue at present is not just delivering energy to households, but ensuring that this energy is available in a timely, sustainable manner with reliable infrastructure is of utmost importance.
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