Iran rolling blackouts blamedon heat, drought, crypto-mining

TEHRAN: Iran has startedrolling blackouts, local mediareported Sunday, which officialsblamed on heat, droughtimpacting hydropower generation,and surging electricitydemand blamed in part oncrypto-currency mining.Power cuts in the peaksummer months are not uncommonin Iran, but a governmentreport this monthsaid precipitation was down43 percent compared to thecountry’s long-term average,warning of reduced watersupplies for the year.Tehran and several othercities have been hit by unannouncedpower cuts thatsparked complaints fromconsumers, disrupted businessesand damaged householdappliances, Iran’s statetelevision reported.Rolling blackouts for thecapital, Alborz and KhorasanRazavi provinces were announcedby provincial powerdistribution companies, withneighbourhoods losingpower for at least two hoursuntil evening.Tehran had experiencedbrief unplanned outages onSaturday, said AFP correspondentsafter power cutshad also hit other majorcities such as Shiraz and Isfahanfrom Friday, accordingto IRNA and ISNA newsagencies. —AFP