The intense heat darkened West Asia
reported Mehr News Agency, in the past few days, many neighboring countries witnessed widespread power outages, and the temperature in some areas has reached 50 degrees Celsius.
These blackouts were experienced in various places throughout Saudi Arabia, especially Riyadh, the capital of this country. Saudi authorities described the weather conditions in this country as very hot and exhausting. However, Saudi Arabia’s Electricity Regulatory Authority, in explaining the cause of the blackout in the capital, claimed that the power was cut off after a contractor damaged a main power line.
In Kuwait, the temperature even exceeded the 50 degree Celsius mark and approached the historical record of 53.5 degrees. The government asked citizens to save electricity to avoid overloading the power grid, which could lead to more blackouts. Kuwait also announced that it will implement more blackouts to reduce power consumption due to high demand as temperatures rise in the summer. Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy released plans showing the time and location of power outages from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the busiest time.
Meanwhile, according to statistics published by the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, last week in Turkey, the country’s daily electricity consumption rate reached a record of 1.16 million megawatt hours. The authorities of this country attributed this to the high use of coolers and the increase in agricultural irrigation processes. Officials warned of prolonged power outages in Istanbul on Friday, but claimed it was due to maintenance operations underway in various areas across the economic hub.
Iraq also reduced the working hours of government offices by one hour due to the extreme heat wave and long-term power outage. Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani, the Prime Minister of this country, announced an emergency measure to protect residents from extreme heat and continuous lack of electricity. Power outages in the big cities of this country can reach 10 hours a day, and rural areas also have longer outages.
