Residents of Arbaeen Street in the Al-Safa district of Jeddah have voiced their concerns at continual power cuts over the past two days, with some of them saying they have been forced to move into nearby hotels and furnished apartments until the situation is rectified. Locals are concerned that the power cuts – which have coincided with temperatures soaring to 50 degrees centigrade – are affecting their children's studies during the current school end-of-year final examination period. “I have been forced to move my family in with relatives so my younger brothers can study properly,” said Al-Safa resident Hani Sami. “I've stayed at home on my own, meanwhile, waiting for the emergency repair men to come, and even though they came once to sort out the problem we were left without electricity again just a few hours later.” According to neighbor Essam Abdul Wahhab, the frequent power failures during the summer are “conclusive proof that the electricity company's plans to meet the temperature rise have failed”. “I've been calling them since early in the morning to report the problem but no one has turned up in the area yet,” Abdul Wahhab said. As parts of the district turn into a ghost town due to the absence of many of its usual inhabitants, while other families resort to candlelight and try to tolerate the extreme temperatures, a Saudi Electricity Company official source said that power failures in Makkah and Jeddah were due to a “technical failure in three of the electricity units at the new Rabegh plant”. “The failure occurred because of temperatures rising to over 48 degrees, and as soon as the temperatures go down and the failure in the units is rectified power will return,” the source said. “The heat sensitivity of the electricity units led to the current being cut off as a precautionary measure against possible fires.”
