The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) announced that a technical failure occurred at the main substation in Salmiya causing power outages in six areas: Salmiya, Hawalli, Hawalli Square, Rumaithiya, Bayan and Jabriya, Al Rai reported.
Power was restored to parts of the affected areas in Hawalli, MEW announced that work is underway to restore electricity to the remaining areas. Power is also down in some areas of Salmiya.
The reason given was that the main switching station, West Salmiya, was out of service this evening, on Wednesday, leading to a partial blackout in several areas in Hawalli Governorate among five others.
The MEW said in a statement, “The emergency teams of the ministry are currently working on the site to restore the electricity as soon as possible.”
It indicated that the disconnection is partial and includes the areas of Salmiya, Hawalli, Hawalli Square, Rumaithiya, Bayan and Jabriya.
Traffic lights stopped operating due to the power outage, causing great traffic congestion and in some cases accidents as well as chaos on roads in these areas. The blackout has also caused great confusion on roads and the utter darkness across large areas.
Firefighting teams are dealing with several reports of elevator breakdowns due to power outages in parts of those areas.