Bahrain will face more power cuts unless people start drastically reducing consumption, officials warned Wednesday.
Consumers are overloading the system in peak hours by turning on too many appliances, an electricity and water ministry statement said, cited by the Gulf Daily News.
The result is load-shedding, where the electricity supply is turned off for a short time in one area, then others in turn, to lessen the overall load on supply, it added.
Although electricity supply itself is not a problem, too much pressure on supply cables is in danger of damaging them and causing even greater problems, added the statement.
Power has been cut periodically to areas in the western region over the last few days, to reduce the load on the 66,000 volt cable which supplies the entire area.
"Power was cut for half an hour in each area to avoid discomfort to consumers, but it was a necessary precaution that had to be taken to avoid harming the cable," it continued.
"The load-shedding measures were monitored to ensure that none of the areas targeted were effected for longer than necessary.
"Instead of cutting power in one particular region for a couple of hours, we cut off power to a number of areas under a supervised system.
"The power cut only effected four per cent of our total consumers, but it was necessary in order to avoid disruption to 50 percent.
Residents were urged to work together to reduce consumption overall, especially during peak hours, said the paper.
Bahrain, like many of the Gulf states, is undergoing the stresses of rapid development – Albawaba.com
