KUWAIT CITY, July 13: The electricity load index reached a new record high at noon on Saturday with 17,360 megawatts – 560 megawatts higher than the maximum load of 16,800 megawatts at the beginning of August 2023 – due to the remarkable rise in temperature that exceeded 49 degrees Celsius. The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy announced that the above-mentioned record high power consumption was reached at 2:00 pm on Saturday with a temperature of 49 degrees Celsius.

Reliable sources from the ministry explained that the difference in the increase in Saturday’s electrical load index is enough to supply electricity to an entire region. They cited the remarkable increase in temperatures as the cause of the rise in power consumption rates, especially at noon. They said the 500 megawatts purchased from the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) and the 1,160 megawatts added to the power reserve in the past weeks put the ministry in the safety zone and even suspended the programmed power cuts.

After securing the required quantities of energy, the only remaining issue is the power outage common in any electrical network around the world during peak hours. This includes the resumption of the operation of feeders that were out of service due to malfunctions and combustion in one of the components of the transmission networks – main or secondary substations. The ministry’s emergency teams immediately dealt with these malfunctions. It also stressed the need to continue the rationalization measures until the current summer season ends in September.

This is done through the coordinated efforts of the ministry, other government agencies and productive sectors like the industrial, agricultural and commercial sectors, sources clarified. In a related development, the ministry has confirmed that three sub-feeders in the main transmission station in Mina Abdullah malfunctioned recently; leading to a power outage in some parts of Ali Sabah Al-Salem. In a statement on its X account, the ministry announced that the emergency teams were dispatched to the location to take the necessary measures and restore electricity as quickly as possible.

By Mohammad Ghanem
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff