Scorching summer temperatures are driving higher liquids fuel consumption at Kuwait’s power plants. Electricity demand has spiked earlier in summer than expected, and the government’s failure to commission new power capacity in recent years has pushed the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) into taking action to relieve the strained grid. Last week, an outage at the key 6GW Az Zour South power complex coincided with a period of intense air conditioning usage given temperatures of over 50°C, leaving the ministry no choice but to roll out country-wide 1-2 hour/day cuts (MEES, 21 June).
Natural gas is the primary feedstock in Kuwait’s power plants, and this is supplemented with fuel oil during high demand periods, and even small amounts of gasoil and crude periodically. Fuel oil consumption rose 21,000 b/d to 155,000 b/d in May according to the latest MEW figures and will have pushed higher still this month. Peak load reached 16.81GW on 20 June, the highest ever June figure, just shy of last August’s all-time high of 16.94GW which will surely be topped over the coming weeks (see chart 1). (CONTINUED - 862 WORDS)
