Residents in several Riyadh neighborhoods breathed a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday evening as power gradually returned after a temporary outage. The cause?Accidental damage to a main transmission line by a contractor working on an unrelated public project.
The Saudi Electricity Regulatory Authority (SERA) clarified the situation, explaining that the outage began around 8:33 PM and affected parts of Hittin, An Nakheel, Al Aqiq, and Al Ghadeer. SERA emphasized its commitment to consumer rights and highlighted its swift response.
Crews worked diligently throughout the night to restore power, prioritizing critical infrastructure and then focusing on residential areas. The authority reported that an impressive 83% of customers had their electricity back within the first hour. While some residents experienced slightly longer outages, power restoration was completed within a maximum of one hour and 58 minutes for all affected areas.
While the inconvenience was brief, it serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of our infrastructure. SERA has initiated regulatory procedures in response to the incident to ensure such accidental damage is minimized in the future.
The specific details of the public project and the contractor involved have not been made public. However, SERA's swift action and focus on customer service helped ensure a quick resolution to the outage.