DOHA: The GCC power grid, to which electricity-surplus Qatar is a major contributor, came to the rescue of Kuwait on Wednesday evening when large parts of that country plunged into darkness due to a power outage.
Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported yesterday that Kuwaiti authorities launched emergency measures when a sudden power outage struck large parts of the country at 19.20 hours on Wednesday.
“They took help from the GCC power grid as well and power supplies began to be restored gradually in the affected areas of Kuwait six minutes later,” QNA said.
By 22.14 hours, power supply was fully restored, QNA said, quoting Kuwait’s Electricity, Water and Public Works Minister, Abdulaziz Al Ibrahim, who gave the details to his country’s news agency, Kuna.
According to Kuwait Times, an English-language daily published from Kuwait, the power outage was caused by cable failure, which led the Subbiya power plant to lose 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
QNA said overhead wires transmitting electricity from the plant were broken and at the time they were carrying a power load of 2,000 MW.
Other media reports suggested the overhead wires fell due to a sudden sandstorm.
Doha-based Arabic daily Al Arab said yesterday that the Subbiya plant was shut down to correct the defect after the outage and the GCC grid immediately supplied 1,100 MW to Kuwait, which was half of its requirement.
A report appearing in this newspaper on September 23 last year had said that since it was activated in 2009, the GCC power grid had helped prevent more than a 1,000 power disruptions in the region until then. Bahrain’s Minister of State for Electricity and Water, Abdulhussain bin Ali Mirza, was quoted as saying that the regional electricity grid had helped avert some 1,073 blackouts during the peak summer months.
A major power failure during the winter months is rare in the region.THE PENINSULA
