The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) began applying a planned load shedding policy to factories and businesses in the Industrial City in south Jeddah last week with power being cut everyday from 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. The company sent letters to factories informing them that if there was an increase in the demand for electricity, the company would be forced to cut power to the industrial area in order to avoid a massive power cut to the city. Saud Al-Tayyar, the owner of a plastics factory, said that “cutting electricity to factories does not only affect businessmen. It is going to result in many people losing their jobs because there are factories that cannot bear the financial losses if the SEC continues to cut the power.” Moreover, Yossef Al-Ghamdi, Executive Manager of another plastics factory, said, “This year's victim of the Saudi Electricity Company's failure to produce enough energy is the industrial sector.” Since last week, he said, the electricity has been cut every afternoon from 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. resulting in financial loss and damages in some factories. He explained that some machines are designed to function on a nonstop 24-hour basis and that any sudden cut in the power would result in raw materials jamming the pipes, leading to more money being spent on maintenance. “It also leads to a disruption in the production system and exporting of finished products,” he added. Al-Ghamdi wondered why factories were being singled out for a cut in electric power. “They can cut electricity from malls which are located everywhere in Jeddah and which are consuming more electric power than the factories,” he said. Sameer Muraad, head of the Industrial Committee in the Jeddah Chamber for Commerce and Industry (JCCI), said, “Cutting power from factories is something that should not happen for any reason and the SEC should consider the impact of such a policy on the industrial sector in Saudi Arabia.” “This is a very sensitive sector. We hope to get an explanation from SEC and find a solution to this problem,” said Muraad. Meanwhile, Abdussalam Al-Yemni, Deputy Executive Director of SEC Public Affairs, said that the company has informed factories that electricity will be cut for only a short time during the peak hours when the generators are overloaded. He said we cannot cut electricity from malls because there are lot of people inside them. “We decided to cut power to factories because every industrial project should be equipped with emergency generators,” he explained. Al-Yemni said that “the company has offered factories the opportunity to subscribe to the variable tariff rate which would help them save a lot of money on electricity bills. All that we are asking is that they stop work during the peak afternoon time. There are also projects under way that will eventually increase electricity capacity by 50 percent and it is only a matter of time before they are finished.” He stressed that factories have always been SEC's main consumers and that the company benefited from them more than other consumers since factories operate all year round in both summer and winter. “We will always provide our best services to the important industrial sector, but, at the moment, we are more concerned about social issues than commercial ones, and we would like the factory owners to try to understand the problem we are facing,” Al
