Saudi Arabia fires senior officials over power outage
Probe points to malfunction in circuit breaker caused by poor maintenance
Dubai: Senior officials have been fired from their positions following the recent power outage in Sharurah, a city in southern Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Electricity Regulatory Authority (SERA) launched an investigation into the incident due to the delay in restoring electricity.
The investigation, overseen by SERA and supported by independent consultants, pointed to a malfunction in a circuit breaker caused by poor maintenance and the failure of protection devices.
The board of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), after reviewing the findings, dismissed a senior executive along with three managers for their negligence in preventing and managing the outage.
Engineer Abdul Rahman Al Amoudi has been appointed as the new Executive Vice-President for Generation Activities, with additional appointments including Eng. Saad Al Shahrani as the Head of Southern Power Generation Operations,
Ali Al Kathiri as the Director of the Sharourah Power Plant.
To prevent future incidents, the SEC board has approved a series of technical measures, including the implementation of rigorous maintenance programmes and a reassessment of protection devices at the power plant.
The board also committed to continuous monitoring of all power stations and networks throughout the Kingdom, ensuring compliance with SERA’s directives and addressing any deficiencies highlighted in their review of the company’s operations for summer 2024.
SERA has ordered the Kingdom’s electricity company to provide financial compensation to the residents of the governorate following prolonged power outages earlier this month.
The outages reportedly occurred during a period of significant temperature rise, affecting over 100,000 residents in the Najran region of southern Saudi Arabia.