Iran closes offices, schools over cold, energy shortage

TEHRAN — Iran announced the closure of offices and schools in many provinces across the country on Sunday due to a cold snap and energy shortages, state media reported.

Iran is an energy giant, with the world's second-largest reserves of natural gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

But the country has been forced to ration electricity in recent weeks due to a lack of gas and fuel to feed its power plants.

Schools and public offices were closed down in the northern provinces of Gilan, Golestan and Ardabil as well as Alborz west of the capital Tehran "due to the cold weather and in order to manage fuel consumption," official news agency IRNA said.

It reported that similar decisions were taken due to the cold in several other provinces including Tehran and Mazandaran in the north, Kermanshah in the west, Ghazvin in the centre and South Khorasan in the east.

In recent days, unexpected power cuts have affected several provinces as well as the capital Tehran, leading to the frustration of the citizens.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday urged citizens to use "two degrees less" heating to save energy, in what has already become a campaign promoted by his government.

Iran was the world's seventh-largest producer of crude oil in 2022 and has the third-largest proven reserves behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

But Iran's electricity grid suffers from a lack of investment in infrastructure, partly due to Western sanctions.

In July, authorities ordered the working hours to be halved for several days in government institutions to save energy, that time in the middle of a heat wave.