KUWAIT CITY, Feb 11, (Agencies): The postponement of the trial-run of Al-Sabiya power plant will not change the scheduled full run of operations agreed with the assigned company, Kuwait’s Minister of Electricity and Water Bader Al-Shuraiaan said Friday.

The plant’s trial-run was postponed to 20 April due to technical difficulties, with its actual operational date scheduled for early June this year.

The ministry has signed a penalty clause if the company fails to complete the project at the agreed deadline, the minister said during an inspectional tour of the plant.

Al-Sabiya plant will provide a further 1,300 megawatts to the current accumulative electrical output of the ministry of 11,000 megawatts.

Separately, he said there was continued coordination with the Public Authority for Social Security to adopt the hard labour bill, which is in its final stages.

Meanwhile, residents of Blocks 2 and 3 in Ahmadi area are suffering power cuts from 7.30 am until 12 noon due to maintenance operations at some power stations and replacing of cables, reports Al-Qabas daily.
The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) had notified the residents a week ago and the programmed power cuts began on Thursday. Sources said the ministry is conducting periodical maintenance of its facilities in preparation for next summer.

The ministry is also conducting maintenance of secondary transformer stations in some areas to boost their performance.