NEPCO working to restore Marka transformers affected by cable damage

AMMAN — One of three transformers that went down on Sunday, cutting power to several east Amman areas, has been restored and work is under way to repair the others, according to the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO).

NEPCO Director General Abdul Fattah Daradkeh said on Monday that the power was cut because a cable at the Marka substation was damaged, cutting supply to three transformers, noting that personnel are working around-the-clock to fix the damage, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Speaking to Energy Minister Ibrahim Saif, who was checking on the control centre at NEPCO, Daradkeh said the remaining 70 substations are working as normal.

Saif listened to a detailed report on the mechanism to deal with current weather conditions and the power outage cases the company is dealing with.

The minister issued directives to fix all malfunctions in the grid and follow up with electricity distribution companies to restore power to areas that witnessed outages, because of the increase of the load on the national grid.

The load increased on Sunday by 400 to 500 megawatts (MW) above the average, Daradkeh said.

The load on the national power grid reached “an unprecedented” 3,185MW on Sunday, up from 2,840MW registered in the same period last year, as many air conditioners and fans were on in Jordan to mitigate the effect of the heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40°C.

The Electricity Distribution Company noted that although the power load reached such an unusual rate on Sunday, the generation capacity is 4,000MW.

The company urged people to adopt a few measures to ease power consumption, such as distributing the load and reporting violations that damage the national grid, which are “very dangerous to public safety”.