Why do the lights keep going out?

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Abu Dhabi-based Masdar City aims to be an alternative energy hub for clean & green energy.

A series of power cuts in Sharjah is making some residents consider relocating. They also illustrate the need for a sustainable energy policy if the UAE is to meet its ambitious growth targets.

As Sharjah residents this month stayed with friends, slept in cars or checked into Dubai hotels to escape the sweltering summer heat, many wondered how it could be that one of the most energy rich regions of the world is unable to supply its cities with energy.

"If the government updates us on when the power is going to be cut, maybe we can safeguard ourselves or invest in alternate solutions like Inverters and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems. Over this past week my Sharjah office has lost a bit of data due to the uninformed power cuts," said Arabian Business reader Karan Kalra.

"This is the last straw," wrote another reader. "With rents in Dubai coming down, it won't be much time before the exodus starts from Sharjah back to Dubai."

For owners of newly built properties that have been waiting for months to get connected to the emirate's power grid the outlook went from bad to worse.

Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) has been tight-lipped on what the cause of the outages has been, but it appears that authorities have underestimated the rate of growth in Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm al Quwain, after the region collectively known as the Northern emirates was drawn into the Dubai-led property boom.

"They can put a band aid over the situation and get this turbine fixed in a couple of weeks to a couple of months...But what Sharjah needs at the moment is some reserve standby capacity that they can utilise when they have outages," says the regional director of an energy company, who does not want to be named.

"Have you taken a drive to Sharjah and Ajman and seen the number of towers that are blacked?" he says of the many developments waiting for electricity.

A government report estimates the number of commercial buildings in the northern emirates waiting for electricity to be around 1,000, UAE daily The National recently reported.

If the cause of the disruptions has been a failing gas turbine, which seems likely, the solution would simply be to build more of those once financing is in place. But even then, Sharjah and the rest of the UAE would probably not have enough gas to cover its own needs. The situation is exacerbated by state subsidies that have encouraged energy use, and sometimes led to what many see as wasteful consumption.

Dana Gas, a Sharjah-based private-sector natural gas company, said earlier this year that it is moving ahead with plans for the exploration and development of a concession in Sharjah.  The Western Offshore concession covers an area of 1,000 sq km and includes the Zora gas field, which was discovered in 1979.

Elsewhere, the $3.5bn Dolphin gas pipeline, scheduled for completion in 2010, will transport gas from Qatar's North Field to the UAE and Oman. But with Qatar preferring to export gas in its more profitable liquid form, it is unlikely to quench its southern neighbour's thirst for energy.

Could the solution lie across the Gulf? Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm Mubadala last month denied a report that it was in talks with the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) over importing Iranian gas to the UAE. Tehran's semi-official Mehr News Agency had reported that Mubadala Petroleum Services had reached a preliminary agreement to import Iranian gas.

Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum has unsuccessfully tried to strike a deal with NIOC over gas imports. Eight years ago, the privately held company signed an agreement with NIOC for supplies of 600m cubic ft of gas per day, and has been ready to take delivery since late 2005. The oil and gas company said in August that it would take NIOC to arbitration.

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READERS' COMMENTS

what a waste
Posted by ametis, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 27 September 2009 at 08:32 UAE time


This is like having a fresh water Lake on your doorstep, and yet your family are famished by thirst..

There are so many opportunities and systems to get almost free energy, and yet there are power cuts..

UAE creates enough waste per day, to generate enough electricity to keep it going...without the need for gas

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