Kuwait will carry out more scheduled power cuts, to help reduce demand for electricity as temperatures soar during the summer months, authorities have said.
On Friday, the Ministry of Electricity published schedules listing dates and areas where power will cut, during the peak periods between 11am to 5pm.
The power cuts will last for up to two hours if the need arises, it said.
“In light of the heatwave, may God give people patience with the rising temperatures, and may God help the sick, the elderly, and children during these power cuts,” Kuwaiti citizen Ibrahim Al Ghasham said.
“What is happening right now is the result of a lack of responsibility and poor planning. If a decision was issued to suspend classes in the last week, we could’ve saved so much electrical load across approximately 800 schools,” he added.
Reducing the number of electricity users is done through power cuts when demand for power approaches supply capacity, creating the potential for a dangerous imbalance.
Power consumption on Thursday hit 16,241 megawatts, surpassing the 16,000 mark for the second day in a row, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
"The scheduled cut-off time for each region will be announced one hour before the cut-off time through the ministry's official accounts on social media platforms,” authorities added.
Countries across the Middle East are experiencing a heatwave. Several have resorted to systematic power cuts to shed the loads on their grids.
In Egypt, the government has mandated daily power cuts as it struggles with an economic crisis.
Several areas in Kuwait have experienced power cuts since Wednesday.
The cuts on Thursday were limited to five areas, mostly industrial, compared to more than 40 residential areas on Wednesday, the ministry said on its X account.
The ministry added that malfunctions at the main power transformer in Salwa caused blackouts in parts of block 12 of the area on Thursday.
Salwa is an area in Hawalli province in Kuwait City, bordering Rumaithiya to the north.
“The electricity from today is cut off in the Saad Abdullah city,” said Nasser Al Shghban. "Our children, the elderly and the sick are suffering even during these short power cuts. In this hot summer climate, we’re in a miserable state."
Taken by surprise
Meteorological and environmental expert Issa Ramadan described Kuwait’s infrastructure as a “heat magnet” that needs further agriculture and nano technology to tackle its heat challenges during the summer months.
“The current asphalt and street tiles gain heat easily during the day and do not lose it in the evening,” Mr Ramadan said. "Kuwait need to seriously think about the construction of asphalt and tiles with insulating materials and colours that can reduce the temperature by up to 7 degrees."
Kuwaiti citizen Alia Abdulrahman said that her house in the centre of Kuwait City experienced two hours of power cut on Wednesday but was taken by surprise.
"I wasn't aware that there were planned power cuts. I grew up in Bahrain and Kuwait where sometimes the electricity shuts off due to power shedding. But if this continues for some time I'll have to plan ahead and spend it in a mall or public place," she said.
Kuwait’s Education Ministry has instructed primary school teachers to start their summer holidays earlier this year, from Thursday
Middle school and secondary teachers will begin their breaks on Monday.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs asked mosques to switch off air conditioners 10 minutes after each prayer, while the Health Ministry ordered employees to switch off lights after working hours.
Abdulaziz Al Qarawi, head of the Meteorological Department at the General Administration of Civil Aviation, told the Kuwait News Agency that temperatures are expected to reach between 47°C and 50°C maximum over the weekend amid an expected heatwave.
To control the expected surge in power demand, Kuwait announced last month it signed short-term contracts to buy 500MW of electricity, including 300MW from Oman and 200MW from Qatar, during the summer months.
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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