Iran threatens to fully close Hormuz, target US-linked firms if power plants hit

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would send Iran “back decades” if it continues targeting cities, accusing Tehran of deliberately firing on civilian population centers.

“If this continues, we’ll be sure to hit Iran so hard it will be sent back decades,” Katz said while visiting the site of a missile strike in Arad that injured scores.

Katz said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was “intentionally firing at population centers” to pressure the Israeli government to stop the war. “This won’t happen,” he said. “The home front is strong.”

Iran now has the capability to strike deep into Europe, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, as he visited the site of a missile strike in the southern city of Arad.

Netanyahu said Iran had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile toward Diego Garcia and warned that its range puts European capitals within reach.

“They fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Diego Garcia. That's 4,000 kilometers. I've been warning all the time. They have now the capacity to reach deep into Europe. They already have fired on European countries, Cyprus,” he said, adding that Iran is “putting everyone in their sights.”

He accused Iran of targeting civilian areas and religious sites in recent attacks and said the country is also disrupting global energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

“They fired on Jerusalem right next to the holy sites of the three monotheistic faiths, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. And by dint of a miracle, again, none of them were hurt, but they were targeting the holy sites of the three major monotheistic religions.”

Netanyahu called on world leaders to join the United States and Israel in confronting Iran, saying the threat goes beyond the region and “is for the security of the entire world.”

Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref warned that any attack on the country’s infrastructure would cause a widespread blackout across the region.

Referring to Donald Trump’s warning of strikes on Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened, Aref said, “An attack on Iran’s infrastructure will create a widespread blackout in the region.”

He added that Iran’s right to self-defense remains intact and warned that those issuing threats would bear responsibility for the consequences.

Aref said Iran did not start the war but would not hesitate to defend itself, adding that Tehran would decide “when and how” the conflict ends.

The short answer is that Iran’s power system is large, heavily dependent on thermal generation, and widely dispersed – making it difficult to disable through limited military strikes.

A system built on thermal power

According to Iran’s Ministry of Energy, the country has around 40.6 million electricity subscribers, including 32.3 million residential users.

Although official figures put hydroelectric power at 13.4% of capacity, the actual share is less than 5%, largely due to reservoir conditions.

Instead, Iran relies overwhelmingly on thermal power plants, which generate more than 95% of its electricity.

There are about 130 thermal plants across the country, with a combined capacity of 78,000 megawatts. Among them, around 20 plants exceed 1,000 megawatts, and three exceed 2,000 megawatts.

Where the power is generated

The largest facility is the Damavand power plant, with a capacity of about 2,900 megawatts.

Also known as the Pakdasht plant, it covers roughly 200 hectares and is located 50 kilometers southeast of Tehran on the Khavaran road. Its construction cost was close to 2 billion euros.

The Neka (Behshahr) power plant, also around 200 hectares, is located along the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran province and has a capacity of about 2,200 megawatts.

The Rajaei power plant, along the Karaj-Qazvin road, produces around 2,000 megawatts and spans about 350 hectares.

Around Tehran, five major plants – Damavand, Rajaei, Montazer Ghaem, Roudshour (Rudshur), and Mofatteh – play a central role in supplying electricity.

Within the capital itself, smaller plants – Besat, Rey, Tarasht, and Parand – operate at much lower capacity. The largest among them, Parand, produces about 950 megawatts, while Besat generates around 250 megawatts and Tarasht only 50 megawatts.

Hard targets, limited impact

Large power plants are not easy targets.

A facility like Damavand, with multiple cooling towers and units spread across 200 hectares – roughly 30 times the size of Tehran’s Azadi Square – would require a wide-scale attack to fully disable.

Even then, the impact on the national grid would be limited.

The complete destruction of Damavand would remove only 3.7% of Iran’s total electricity generation capacity. Part of that loss could be offset by halting about 400 megawatts of electricity exports.

A decentralized grid

Iran’s electricity system is not concentrated in a few locations. Its transmission and sub-transmission network extends about 133,000 kilometers, and when urban and rural lines are included, the total exceeds 1.3 million kilometers.

The system is supported by 857,000 transformers and an estimated 2,000 to 5,000 large and medium substations across the country.

Strikes on substations could cause temporary, localized outages, but they can be replaced relatively quickly.

For example, after blue flashes were seen in the skies over western Tehran and Karaj – likely caused by explosions at power substations – electricity in western Tehran was cut temporarily before being restored.

Can Iran be plunged into darkness?

Given this scale and dispersion, targeting one or several power plants is unlikely to cause a nationwide blackout.

Even significant damage would be absorbed by the broader network, limiting the impact to specific areas and short timeframes.

An acting intelligence minister was appointed immediately after the killing of Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, a communications aide to President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday.

Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy for communications and information at Pezeshkian’s office, said the appointment order was issued by the president and conveyed to the relevant authorities, but added that the name of the acting minister would be announced at an “appropriate time.”

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