Data-center law in Iran
National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-07
Iran has no data-center-specific siting, permitting, or utility statute.
Its general energy-sector reform statute, the Law on Removing Obstacles for Power Industry Development (approved 1401/2022), obligates its energy-intensive industries collectively to build at least 9,000 megawatts of thermal generation capacity (minimum 55% efficiency) and 1,000 megawatts of renewable and clean generation capacity by the end of Iranian year 1404 (on or about March 2026), funded from the industries' own resources, and permits the sale of surplus self-generated electricity through a bilateral contract or the energy exchange; a data center or other large industrial electricity consumer in Iran is reached by this mandate as an energy-intensive industry.
A separate provision pegs the industrial electricity tariff to power-purchase-agreement rates while expressly excluding cryptocurrency-mining operations from that tariff.
The Cabinet's Executive Bylaw implementing Article 4 defines the qualifying energy-intensive industries (steel, aluminum, copper and other basic metals and metallic minerals; non-metallic energy-intensive industries, refinery units, and the petrochemical and chemical sector; and the power plants themselves) and gates a captive power plant's construction on the Environmental Protection Organization's environmental-assessment response, due within 45 days, and a Ministry of Energy water permit, due within 15 days of an inter-ministerial Steering Working Group's confirmation.
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Instruments on record
2 instruments on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.
Environmental review
What impact review must precede approval, and who leads it?
Executive Bylaw of Article 4, environmental and water-permit gate for captive power plants
In force
Executive Bylaw of Article 4 of the Law on Removing Obstacles for Power Industry Development, Arts. 1, 3
Applies to both
Issued by the Council of Ministers under Article 138 of the Constitution to implement Article 4 of the Law on Removing Obstacles for Power Industry Development, Article 1 defines the energy-intensive industries subject to that Article's captive power-plant mandate to include steel, aluminum, copper, and other basic-metal and metallic-mineral industries, and non-metallic energy-intensive industries, refinery units, and the petrochemical and chemical sector.
The same Article establishes a Steering Working Group including representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum and the Environmental Protection Organization. Article 3(b) obligates the Environmental Protection Organization, acting on the Steering Working Group's resolutions, to respond to a power-plant construction inquiry within a maximum of 45 days of the submission of an environmental impact assessment report.
Article 3(c) obligates the Ministry of Energy to issue the water permit the power plant needs within a maximum of 15 days of the Working Group's confirmation.
Source: Full text of law
Energy and grid
What authorizations govern grid connection and onsite generation?
Law on Removing Obstacles for Power Industry Development, captive power-plant mandate
In force
Law on Removing Obstacles for Power Industry Development, approved 1401 (2022), Arts. 3-4
Applies to both
Article 4 obligates the energy-intensive industries named in Article 3 (in coordination with the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade and the Ministry of Energy) to build, from their own internal resources, at least 9,000 megawatts of thermal power-plant capacity at a minimum efficiency of 55%, plus 1,000 megawatts of renewable and clean power-plant capacity, by the end of Iranian year 1404 (on or about March 2026).
If an industry does not build its share, its own electricity supply during a shortage falls under the Ministry of Energy's ordinary consumption-management priority scheme rather than a protected priority. The Ministry of Energy must support these industries' electricity supply and transfer their surplus generated electricity, which may be sold on the energy exchange or under a bilateral contract.
Article 3 separately fixes the average electricity price for industrial subscribers, excluding cryptocurrency-mining operations, at the average rate of power-purchase-agreement contracts, calculated against power-plant fuel cost and transmission cost. The Law does not state its own commencement day; Article 19 refers to "the date this Law becomes effective" only to date a separate repeal, without stating that date itself.
Source: Full text of law
Every entry cites the instrument it describes.
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