Iran parliament rejects urgency bills on daylight saving time changes

In Wednesday’s session, lawmakers rejected the “double urgency” and “single urgency” statuses for the bill, meaning the legislation will now undergo standard parliamentary review procedures without expedited processing.

The proposed bill would have empowered the administration to modify Iran’s time zone offset and set official working hours for civil servants.

The country abolished seasonal clock changes in 2022, maintaining UTC+3:30 year-round despite some calls to revert to DST (daylight saving time) as the change adds nearly 1,000 megawatts to peak loads, equivalent to the output of the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Iran’s power grid is under severe strain as a prolonged drought reduces hydropower generation while summer electricity demand reaches record levels, raising fears of widespread blackouts in coming months.

In addition, with rainfall 40% below normal this year, reservoir levels at hydroelectric dams have dropped to critical lows, cutting a key power source just as air conditioning use spikes.

The CEO of state-run Tavanir Power Company, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, said earlier this month that restoring daylight saving time could alleviate up to 15% of Iran’s expected shortfall this summer.