The Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has added 4,000 megawatts (MW) to its power generating facilities to meet the summer demand, representing an increase of 11 percent compared to last year. Engineer Ali Bin Saleh Al-Barrak, the Executive President of the SEC, stressed that the company does not expect any shortage of power supply during the summer months, unless it happens from a technical fault. About power cuts in some areas, Al-Barrak said the company still operates old networks in a number of districts in big cities. He said work is under way to replace these networks but this will take time. He said these networks cause limited cuts in service but added that the company has a number of measures to restore power in a short time. Al-Barrak said the electricity network can be affected by various factors, including weather conditions such as strong wind and heavy rain. In such cases, services are interrupted for a limited time of not more than one hour, but this happens everywhere in the world, he said. The company said that it has well trained technical teams equipped with the necessary machinery and tools to repair a damaged network and restore service as soon as possible. Al-Barrak conceded that there may be some delays in restoring service in crowded cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah. This is because emergency teams have difficulty getting to problem areas because of the congested roads, especially during peak hours. The company is carrying out hundreds of power generating, transmission and distribution projects which will help to improve the service over the next few years. About connecting the service to new subscribers, Al-Barrak said the company is facing “great difficulty” in keeping pace with the unprecedented expansion in new buildings. He said there has been a 15 percent increase in the number of new buildings over the past few years.
