The Bushehr plant manager stated that power generation has resumed and asked the Iranians to minimize electricity consumption.

Iran’s only nuclear power plant came back online two weeks after being off the grid due to conflicting reports about apparently scheduled maintenance operations.

Mahmoud Jafari, the manager of the Bushehr plant, said on Monday that a “technical failure” caused Turn off The plant’s 1,000 MW reactor on the southern coast of Iran has been repaired.

Jafari, who also serves as the vice chairman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said this allows the plant to restore power generation and reconnect.

Jafari said that power generation has resumed from Sunday and urged Iranians to “help” the Islamic Republic of Iran. Overburdened grid By minimizing electricity consumption, because the weather forecast predicts that the temperature will rise in the next few days.

Cities across the country, including the capital Tehran, have been affected by power outages that have intensified in recent days, sometimes extending to several hours, and multiple times a day without warning.

On June 20th, AEOI attributed the closure to a “technical failure” and stated that it had notified the Department of Energy the day before it went offline.

Two days later, it said that the problem was with the factory’s “generator”, but did not explain it further.

However, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the closure as a “routine affair” at the time, saying it was “conducted once or twice a year.

After a series of power outages in Iran due to high temperature and drought affecting hydropower facilities and a surge in power demand, Bushehr’s off-grid triggered more serious concerns about power outages.

The sporadic nature of the power outages and their incompatibility with the announced timetable has angered citizens and disrupted businesses.

The power outage also caused Internet outages across the country, as cell phone towers were shut down after prolonged power outages.

Iran’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi apologized on Sunday for the interruption, stating that “everyone must be held responsible for this.”

In Iran’s hot summer, when air-conditioning usage surges, power outages are not uncommon. To make matters worse, the country’s hydropower capacity is also affected by low rainfall.

A government report in May stated that precipitation has fallen by 34% compared to the long-term average and warned that water supply will be reduced this year.

Since late May, the Department of Energy has regularly notified citizens of potential power outages that last at least two hours a day.

The Bushehr plant was built by Russia and was officially handed over in September 2013.

Russian and Iranian companies started construction of two other 1,000 MW reactors in 2016, and the construction is expected to take 10 years.