JEDDAH: Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) is trying to find solutions to the hardships caused by frequent power outages in Jeddah’s industrial city, a senior company official told Arab News yesterday.
“The interruptions in power supply are due to the dependence on the new Shuaiba-3 power plant, which is in its primary stage of commissioning and is not owned by the SEC. The company receives only 900 megawatts of electricity for the Shuaiba project,” said Ali Al-Barrak, executive president of the SEC. “The situation is further complicated by the exam season when the company tries to avoid load shedding in residential districts.”
Al-Barrak said the SEC, in concert with the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Industrial Cities Authority and factory owners, has taken steps to identify industries that suffer huge losses due to the outages.
“The company will take steps to guarantee uninterrupted power supply to factories that suffer huge losses due to the frequent outages,” he said.
Asked about power problems in other Saudi cities, he said only Qassim and Jeddah experience supply disruptions. “While necessary steps have been taken to solve the problem in Qassim, uninterrupted supply in Jeddah could be ensured only with linking the city to the central region power grid and the commissioning of new projects in Rabigh next year,” the official said.
Al-Barrak said victims of power outages have every right to make complaints to the company. “The relation between the company and it customers should be strong. A neutral party should solve any differences of opinion between the two parties. Already there is a committee to settle such disputes,” he said. Al-Barrak said the national power grid would be linked to the networks of Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar on July 7.
“While studies are under way to connect the Saudi grid with the United Arab Emirates and Oman, another study on linking up with the Egyptian network is being initiated with the SEC meeting 50 percent of the cost of the study,” he said.
Samir Murad, chairman of the Industry and Commerce Committee at the JCCI, told Arab News the factory owners in Jeddah claimed that they have suffered huge losses because of frequent power cuts, which he estimated at an average of 14 times a month. “You can imagine the total losses suffered by the 460 factories in Jeddah due to power failures,” Murad said.
