Sharjah: Residents experienced rolling brownouts on Saturday and early Sunday, disrupting electrical power supply to homes and businesses in some areas of the emirate, said authorities.
A technical glitch disrupted power supply, a senior official at Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) said on Sunday.
Dr. Rashid Al Leem, Chairman of Sewa, told Gulf News that excess power loading on some power lines lead to power failures for some residents.
In addition, some affected buildings could not endure the overload, he said, because of old electrical boxes in their homes.
The supply was restored after Sewa technicians fixed problems in some places while others still needed work to replace old and damaged cables with new ones.
Work continues to remediate the problem, he said, but will take some time.
Mobile generators
SEWA are working to place temporary mobile generator in some buildings and areas where power was cut to supply them with power till their problem is fixed, Al Leem said.
He said that the power cuts were also due to inner problems in buildings where new modern additions have been added without notifying SEWA to make the necessary amendments.
SEWA technicians were working at problem sites and power was being restored in phases, he said.
Al Leem said SEWA held campaign to end the problem of random connections in the emirate and held sudden inspections so that old electrical boxes were replaced with new panels.
The campaign also sought to identify older cables and replace them with modern higher capacity power lines to homes.
Al Leem also said that people did not adhere to SEWA instructions to conserve power during peak hours.
He is urging residents to switch off electrical appliances and use electricity in a rational manner.
Residents in Sharjah took to Twitter to complain about the latest bout of power cuts, which affected tenants in Butina and other areas in the vicinity.
...SEWA dept is sleeping...so far no electricity whole night in butina area
— abid (@2008Abid) June 17, 2017
Over the weekend, relative humidity had reportedly increased up to 80 per cent, leaving a general feeling of discomfort and stickiness.
Sleepless nights_ Sharjah_no electricity @GulfNewsTV
— suraj subramanian (@suraj1103_vh) June 17, 2017
According to the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS), the summer months in the UAE tend to have high levels of humidity, which will leave residents feeling hotter than the real temperature of the mid-30 degrees Celsius range.
Emergency numbers
Sharjah City
Electricity: 991
Water: 991
Gas: 8006333
Mariam M. Al Serkal is a Senior Web Reporter, and Aghaddir Ali is a Staff Reporter at Gulf News
