Yemen Says Attacks On Power Lines Cause Losses Over $153 Million

April 8, 2012       

Director general of the public electricity corporation has said the losses suffered due to persistent attacks on power lines including spare parts and those due to outages were estimated at more than YR33 billion, over $153 million.

In a press conference, Khalid Abdul Moula, said the authorities had reported about 141 attacks against the Marib-Sanaa power lines.

Most of the attacks took place in 2011 coinciding with the political crisis, which affected all sectors, and sent many cities in darkness, in most cases, more than 20 hours a day.

Since the power-sharing government was sworn in in December, it has been working on repairing power lines and rehabilitating power stations to put an end to the electricity problems in Yemen. The situation has improved, with few hour-blackouts reported a day now. But attacks by saboteurs and tribesmen on power lines persist amid the continuous impact of the political crisis in the country.

Continuous attacks affect equipment, mainly old generators and transformers, he said, pointing out that some stations, such as the 30-megawatts Kathib plant, and another 40-megawatts plant in Makha, have been out of commission as a result.

In the meantime, Yemen is seeking to build more power plants, including some which will be operated on natural gas.

The US-Turkish PEG Company has offered to build a gas-fired power station with a capacity of 1300 megawatts.

The government is considering this offer and recently officials at the Electricity Ministry have said if no offers from other companies emerge, the PEG's offer will be accepted.

Yemen currently produces about 300-400 megawatts, with part of this produced by contracted foreign companies.

Source: Yemen Post