Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade Hossein Farhidzadeh has apologized to Iranian manufacturers for energy imbalances and resultant power outages earlier this year, which inflicted losses on the industrial sector.
“I do apologize that we have not been able to provide the basic necessary conditions for manufacturers,” Farhidzadeh said during a ceremony in the northwestern province of Kermanshah on Thursday during which the top industrial units of the province were honored.
The deputy minister said this year’s power outages had caused more than $108 million per day in damage to the Iranian industrial sector.
Emphasizing that providing sustainable energy is among the primary needs of manufacturers, he admitted that authorities had performed badly as they did not even give advance notice of the outages to industrialists.
Under the law, he said, the government is prohibited from cutting the power supply to industries. It was an apparent reference to Article 25 of Iran’s Continuous Improvement of Business Environment Law, which articulates that the government is obliged to pay compensation to private manufacturers in case of power or gas outages.