Power woes blamed on new mega projects

Manama: A municipal councillor has attributed the frequent power cuts in different parts of Bahrain to commercial projects, such as the newly opened Financial Harbour.

Northern Governorate Municipal Council member Sayed Ameen Al Musawi told Gulf News yesterday that government had been blaming the illegal electricity extensions in old neighbourhoods for overloading and damaging cables, but the reality is that the new financial projects were consuming and overloading the power networks.

"I doubt that air-conditioning in some houses or extra lights would result in these excessive power cuts in almost all villages and cities of Bahrain, but the real problem is because of the huge commercial accommodations and other financial projects that were given permission without proper evaluation of the power capacity of the kingdom."

Surplus electricity

The situation is alarming, as several areas are without electricity for days and some are lucky to be provided with generators, while the rest have to cope with the unbearable heat, he said.

In a press conference held in June, the Minister of Electricity and Water Shaikh Abdullah Bin Salman Al Khalifa assured the public that the situations this summer would be better than the previous summer seasons with a surplus of 667 megawatts being produced daily at three power stations. He also assured the ministry's readiness to cope with the increasing demand during the summer months.

He said 2,767 MW were being generated by the three stations - 950 by Al Azil station, 962 by Hidd station and 855 by Riffa, Sitra and Muharraq stations.

The power backup increase from 50 to 20 per cent would be gradually implemented, the minister said, adding that there was a surplus of 667 MW and no shortage.

The minister said people were not effectively using power and 90 per cent of the problems were related to violations. He said often subscribers increased the power load without informing the ministry which led to fuse and cable problems directly affecting the public.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry, Dr Abdul Majeed Al Awadi blamed in an official statement the public for misusing power supply by increasing power consumption and placement of illegal connections that overload and damage the cables.

Suad Hamada is a journalist based in Manama.