The nationwide
power outage is a very serious matter that
has not happened at such a massive scale in at least two decades. What happened
on Friday afternoon requires an investigation into the causes behind it, which
would go beyond the outcomes of the government’s press conference later the
same day.
اضافة اعلان
Everyone would have understood had a power outage affected a
house, neighborhood, street, village, or even a whole municipality. But a
nationwide blackout is only likely to occur in one case — war, God forbid — as
was the case in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion, in Lebanon after the civil
war, and during the economic collapse in Iraq following the series of wars it
had gone through. I personally have never heard of such a large-scale blackout
being treated as “normal”. Even if such a thing were normal within the field of
electricity management, it has never played out as it did on Friday.
The strange thing about the government’s press conference is
that it did not address people’s concerns about the causes of the incident.
Considering the event requires extensive analysis from an engineering perspective,
such answers cannot be given as quickly as the public wants them to be. The
matter calls for an investigative body to look into what happened, in addition
to a serious and honest review that would offer specific answers and provide
decision makers with an objective view of the situation at hand.
The primary cause of the power outage was a malfunction
along the gas line with
Egypt, and if is this is true, it would suggest that
the Kingdom is facing threats on a number of fronts.
First, is the strategic aspect of electrical linking
processes and their impact on the autonomy of economic decision making. As it
appears now, electrical-security stakeholders have all their eggs in one basket
— relying completely on our neighbors. Therefore, there is a lack of diversity
in the means of operating electrical plants.
The other issue that demands government oversight or
clarification is whether Friday’s incident could happen again. We have heard
nothing about that from the government, and the discussion ended with mere
generalizations; no real explanation was given as to why the outage happened
nor whether it has been fully controlled.
If the issue of linking with Egypt has caused a problem as
severe as the blackout, then the entire project is at stake and should have its
feasibility reevaluated. If it becomes evident that the problem truly lies with
the Egyptian side, then the government cannot move forward with the electrical
linking projects with Iraq and Saudi Arabia, because the entire point of such
projects is to improve the performance of regional electrical grids, sustain
electrical currents, and mitigate costs.
Electrical security is at the heart of the Kingdom’s
economic and political stability plan, and requires diverse sources. This
matter cannot be dealt with as an ordinary event, nor can it be taken lightly.
A proper review of the incident must take place to uncover the real technical
causes and take the measures necessary to ensure it never happens again. This
review must however maintain the autonomy of decision making when it comes to
providing the Kingdom with electricity and create a system of immediate
alternatives to tackle extraordinary incidents such as Friday’s.
Ultimately, we must salute the staff at the National
Electric Power Company for their efforts in restoring current in record time as
it could not have been easy.
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