Sharjah, September 01: Demand for generators has shot up in Sharjah and supplies are running out as hundreds of businesses and residential areas continue to endure power outages. Although power has been restored in most areas, power fluctuations have continued with industrial areas 1, 13, 17, and 12 worst hit during the past four days. At their peak the power problems, which began a fortnight ago, caused a blackout that affected more than 70 per cent of Sharjah.
At least seven medical centres in the industrial areas, which mostly cater to labourers, had to shut earlier than usual. Many patients had to be referred to other facilities.
“It’s not just about losing business,” said K.C.U. Unni, one of the directors of Al Shams Medical Group, which has had a 70 per cent drop-off in patients since the power outages began.
“Most of the medical equipment could not be used and some patients who need emergency services like ECG had to be referred to other facilities,” he said on Monday.
Mohamed Katim, a supermarket owner in the Industrial Area 13, said he estimated a loss of about Dh50,000 after he had to throw away a lot of dairy, meat, vegetable and fruit during the past week.
“Now I have power, but I can’t be sure for how long it will last.”
Company officials from Sharjah and Dubai told Khaleej Times on Monday the extraordinary demand meant generator hiring fees had jumped manifold.
Business development manager of Prime Power in Sharjah S. Elsa said every supplier had increased charges immediately after the blackout began.
“Now, no company in Sharjah has the stock to meet the demand. Earlier, customers used to bargain and think twice for hiring generators if there was any power disruption.
“These days, they don’t have any choice and have to take it at whatever cost it is available.”
She said there were situations when she had to also look into the “merit” of each case. “When a normal office and an ice factory approach you at the same time, you know whose business gets more affected.”
Power consumption in Sharjah has increased by about 10 per cent in the first eight months of this year, compared with last year — from 1,557 megawatts to 1,691 megawatts.
The Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) now has 319,000 consumers and a senior official, who asked not to be named, said engineers were still working in the production plant to enhance its performance. Industrial areas have been worse affected because priority to restore power was given to residential areas with families, and hospitals.
Hassan Ahmad of Al Qudrah Building Machines and Equipment Training said his company stopped supplying generators on daily or weekly basis.
“We are now renting them out only on a monthly basis. Nobody knows when the issue is going to be solved permanently. Even in our office, we are using a generator now,” he said, as power was cut in his company location in Industrial Area No. 10 when he spoke around 2.30pm.
In charge of sales and services, Ahmad said small companies were also “cross-hiring” to meet demand and companies in Dubai were also cashing in.
Roy George, manager of Arabian Gulf Building in Industrial Area No.1, said the building management had struggled to hire a 1,000kv generator. “Finally, when we got one on Friday, it could be used only for two blocks in our 150-metre-wide building. Since we could not get another one, we’ve been trying to get additional cable to supply electricity to the rest of the two blocks as well. But we had to disappoint our tenants in those blocks till yesterday because it is not available in the market.”
The SEWA official said the authority was using its emergency reserve power to supply alternately to different parts of the industrial areas.
“We do not want power to be cut off from families living in these areas for 24 hours,” the official said.
He maintained the problem was not a shortage of power but a fault in the production unit caused by heavy summer demand.
“SEWA has already expanded the capacity of power transmission from 220KW to 400KW to meet the power demands of this summer,” he said.
–Agencies