Government failed to honor fourth promise to operate Mareb 1 (Local)

SANA?A* Aug. 23 ? Despite the advent of the holy month of Ramadan and people's increased demand for electricity* the government failed to honor its fourth promise to operate Mareb Power Station before Ramadan. Mareb 1 was supposed to come online to ease people's suffering of repeated daily blackouts yet it remains nonoperational. Government spokesman Hassan Allawzi promised last Tuesday at a press conference held after the cabinet?s weekly meeting that Mareb 1 will be operational before Ramadan. The hope was that people this year will enjoy the holy month without power blackouts. This latest government promise to operate Mareb 1 comes after three prior promises* none of which materialized. The first one was to operate the station in January this year* the second one was in June and the third one in late July. Defending the Ministry of Electricity and Energy?s failure to honor its commitment to enter the station into service this month* the Ministry's spokesman Muhareb Abu Ghanem said there are big problems in Mareb Governorate. Located 173 kilometers northeast of the capital Sana'a* Mareb is mostly ruled over by tribes.Abu Ghanem* who did not go into detail about the nature of these problems* stated that the station will enter service later on this week* a fifth promise people are waiting to be fulfilled. "The station is ready for work and can be operated by the end of this week*" confirmed Director of Mareb 1 Khaled Rashed. "We are currently conducting checkups on the transformers. Last week we carried out an experiment of counter feeding from Sana'a to Mareb to check the network's lines." He refused to give more explanations because he and other electricity officials are not allowed* according to the ministry's directions* to speak to the press. Rashed said only the minister and the general manager of the Electric Corporation are allowed to talk to journalists. While the station has been ready for operation for more than three weeks* the problem lies in transforming stations and transporting lines. "Today (Saturday)* we started the trial run of transporting lines and transforming stations in Bani Al-Harith area in Sana'a and Safer in Mareb*" said Mohammad Al-Thawr* the Director of Transporting Lines and Transforming Stations Project. "The equipment arrived today and we have started installing them to operate the transforming stations. We are currently conducting counter feeding experiment." He said that they repaired the lines tribesmen fired at two weeks ago and that they installed the final required equipment in Safer station. The new equipment will undergo trial experiments and checkups from today until Wednesday. "Transforming stations are 100 percent ready but the problem was in the three electric towers. They are currently being set up*" he said. He explained that the problem was that land owners in Safer and Bani Al-Hareth areas* where these towers had to be put up* created problems in receiving their compensation. Seeking further information about the delay* the Yemen Times was able to meet a professional electric engineer who was authorized by the ministry to supervise work in operating the station. "It is impossible to operate the station in the beginning of Ramadan*" said the engineer* under condition of anonymity. He explained that there are several pieces of equipment required for operating the station which is composed of three generators* generating a total of 341 megawatts. These pieces of equipment are still in Hodeida* and other equipment has not yet reached Yemen."If the ministry can operate this station this week* it will only generate 130 megawatts because there is only one generator*" he said. This output* he added* will not solve the current shortage estimated at 350 megawatts* and so the blackouts will remain. But he stated the station will be very good when put into use because it can be run by both gas and diesel. This means that if there is a sudden shortage of gas* it can run on diesel alone....

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