KUWAIT: Power was restored to all areas after limited cuts that affected nine industrial and agricultural areas, the interior ministry said Monday, after two days of power cuts that covered almost all residential areas due to disruption in gas supplies. A number of generation units operated by natural gas halted production at two power plants after gas processing units at Kuwait National Petroleum Co malfunctioned and provided low quality gas to the units.

On Monday, the ministry said that those units were being restored to normal production gradually after the gas processing units were repaired. The ministry appealed to consumers to lower their electricity consumption during peak hours between 11 am and 1700 pm. During the summer months, Kuwait has been impacted by extremely high temperatures, hitting above 50 degrees Celsius on many days, thus raising electricity consumption to new record highs.

During the past few years, Kuwait has been virtually on the brink during summer with regards to electricity capacity because of failing to build new power plants to account for rising consumption. During this summer, consumption raced to around 17,000 MW, which is higher than production capacity, but the day was saved thanks to imports of 500 MW from the Gulf power grid.

A local newspaper cited informed sources as saying that the ministry of electricity and water has failed to decide on a number of major international initiatives to build power plants or power generation units, which forced foreign companies to leave. A Kuwaiti writer blamed corruption for failure to build new power plants to meet increasing consumption.