The residents of Al-Marwa district experienced power outage for an unprecedented eight hours on Thursday. A sudden rise in electricity consumption due to soaring temperatures and sweltering heat led to a power supply tripping.
The residents were without power from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and then again from 9 p.m. until midnight.
A number of residents in these neighborhoods expressed their frustration with the long hours without electricity. They called on the Saudi Electricity Company to take measures to prevent such outages in the future particularly during the summer, particularly Ramadan.
Mohammed Ismail, a resident of Al-Marwa, said he moved to the neighborhood from Al-Moshrafa about a year ago, where he had previously lived for five years. He said he could count the number of outages that took place there on his fingers whereas in Al-Marwa, over 15 power cuts had occurred this year alone.
The most recent outage took place two weeks ago, he added, during which the power went off in the entire neighborhood in the morning for three full hours.
Ismail, who has two children in middle school, said his children had to prepare for a mathematics exam Thursday, but because of the outage, they had to study in candlelight. He called on the electricity company to put an end to this situation and take the necessary measures to put an end to these power outages once and for all.
Adel Sabgha, another resident, said the outage interrupted his daughter’s engagement party which she had scheduled months in advance to take place Thursday. As a result of the outage, she was forced to postpone the event, thus causing an unfortunately embarrassing situation with the family of the groom.
An official source at the Saudi Electric Company explained to Arab News that the outage was caused by a malfunction in one of the main stations feeding power to the neighborhoods of Al-Marwa and Al-Haramein. The malfunction was caused by excessive pressure on the electric loads, he said, noting that more than 10 technicians and electrical engineers were called in to rectify the issue.
He said that Jeddah is currently experiencing a heat wave and interruptions in power supply as a result of excessive pressure is something to be expected in the coming weeks, adding that the residents of Jeddah should be prepared in advance to cope with power outages.
Residents of Al-Marwa outraged at power outage
