Iran’s energy ministry on Friday urged citizens to switch off air conditioning units during peak consumption hours after US airstrikes damaged electricity transmission lines in the country’s south. The appeal, carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, aims to stabilise supply to provinces such as Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khuzestan, where temperatures have surpassed 50°C and repeated power and water cuts have compounded the strain. Ministry spokesman Hossein Moghimi said that if each household turned off cooling for one hour between late morning and evening, the grid could be rebalanced to serve areas where infrastructure had been “affected by enemy attacks”.

The damage to civilian utilities is a direct consequence of a widening US air campaign. According to Iranian state media, American forces struck targets for a sixth consecutive night on Thursday, expanding the bombardment to areas near Tehran and the missile-production hub of Semnan for the first time in this phase of the conflict. US Central Command said the operations are intended to “continue to weaken Iranian military capabilities” and degrade threats to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. In retaliation, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missiles and drones at Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain — all of which reported interceptions — and claimed to have hit US radar installations in Oman. A Kuwaiti power station was damaged, and Kurdish rebel groups said Iranian strikes killed eight of their members in northern Iraq.

On the ground, the escalation is deepening economic distress and social anxiety. Iranians interviewed by a news agency described food prices that have nearly doubled since the war began, a collapsing rial that has dashed plans to emigrate, and internet blackouts that have paralysed remote work. A software engineer in Sanandaj said he had only just found work after months of crippling debt, while a psychotherapist explained that the fear of being separated from her family during airstrikes now outweighed any desire to leave. One resident of Mahabad warned that sustained inflation and war-driven hardship could “activate social elements” and trigger street riots, a reference to the protests that security forces crushed in January with mass arrests and executions.

Viewed from Washington, the strikes are a calibrated effort to protect freedom of navigation by targeting military and dual-use infrastructure. In Tehran, however, officials are framing the resulting power cuts as proof that the US is waging war on ordinary Iranians — a narrative amplified by state media. The targeting of bridges, transmission lines and an oil tanker near Kharg Island signals an erosion of the distinction between military and civilian assets. With the June ceasefire having collapsed into daily exchanges and no new diplomatic track announced, the energy ministry’s conservation appeal is a stopgap measure. Permanent repairs to the grid will depend on a security environment that, for now, shows no sign of stabilising.