Around 2,000 power cuts reported across Jordan during snow

AMMAN — Nearly 2,000 power cut cases were reported across the Kingdom during the snowstorm that hit the Kingdom over the weekend, Chief Commissioner of the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission Farouq Hiari said Saturday.

Ninety-eight per cent of the outages were handled by electricity companies, he said. 

Hiari told The Jordan Times that most outages were recorded in the southern Governorate of Tafileh where heavy snow fell, particularly in the area of Rashadiyeh. 

He noted that power cuts in Tafileh lasted for long hours due to severe weather conditions, as maintenance teams from the power company that supplies the south of the country could not reach some areas to fix the problem. 

By 11am Saturday, most malfunctions were fixed, according to Hiari. 

He said the performance of electricity companies during the snow was “very good”, and that the power cuts were beyond their control due to the severe weather. 

Hiari expected power to return to all areas by the end of the day on Saturday. 

He said that the load on the country’s power grid reached around 2,810 megawatts on Friday and Saturday, higher by nearly 15 per cent than average days. 

The average load on the country’s power grid during winter ranges between 2,400 and 2,700 megawatts, but surges during cold spells, according to Hiari.

As power cuts remained for long hours in Tafileh, some bakeries could not operate which caused shortages of the product. 

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply announced it had taken measures to secure bread for residents of the southern governorate by distributing it from bakeries in Karak and other areas in Tafileh to bakeries that could not operate due to power cuts.