Kuwait Turns to Power Cuts as Climate Change Strains Its Grid

Kuwait, perched atop around 6 percent of global oil reserves, is one of the world’s wealthiest states and a major energy exporter.

But in June, as soaring temperatures strained the country’s electrical grid, a Kuwaiti elementary school teacher, Shaikha al-Shammari, found herself leading lessons in the dark when the power suddenly cut out. Last month, she went home to find her own children struggling to cope after the electricity went out there, too, shutting off the air-conditioning.

And Mishari al-Olyan, 40, a lawyer, said the rolling blackouts that the government had resorted to recently as electricity demand surged were a “catastrophe.” His father needs an oxygen tank to breathe — and the tank needs electricity to operate, he said. So now he makes sure he has a spare machine charged and ready.

“Since when does a country like Kuwait have electricity cuts?” he asked.

The country’s power problems have many causes. As the planet warms, soaring demand has outpaced the capacity of the existing electrical grid, while bureaucratic delays have stymied efforts to expand it. Kuwait has also largely shifted away from burning oil to generate power — a more polluting method — in favor of natural gas. And since the country produces relatively little natural gas, it needs to import it.

The blackouts in Kuwait this summer underscore the challenges that even affluent countries in the region face as climate change reorders life across the Middle East. In April, heavy rains caused severe flooding in Dubai, wreaking havoc at its international airport. And in June, heat waves contributed to the death of more than 1,300 people making the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Summer blackouts are not new in Kuwait; they have occurred regularly since 2006. But this year, the ministry of electricity, water and renewable energy has increased scheduled power cuts, and Kuwaitis say it feels like the electricity is going out more often.

On Aug. 18, the ministry warned that cuts would happen in several neighborhoods across the country and asked people to conserve energy during the peak hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It blamed those cuts on a “fuel supply disruption” for natural gas. And in a statement this summer, the ministry attributed outages in June to “the inability of power generation stations to meet the increasing demand during peak times, compounded by higher temperatures compared to previous years.”

In late August, the ministry said Kuwait had recorded its highest electrical load in history as temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius, or more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, aggravated by high humidity along the coast.

“Just walking out of the house is difficult,” said Ms. al-Shammari, 31.

Sarah Hashem Ibrahim, 34, a middle school teacher, said she had noticed her students increasingly affected by the heat, finding it more difficult to concentrate.

“When it’s so hot and the electricity is out, your whole life stops,” she said. “Even just basic daily tasks you can’t do anymore.”

The Persian Gulf nation is one of the world’s largest oil exporters and has a $980 billion sovereign wealth fund. Yet its citizens often complain of government mismanagement. In a recent report, AlShall, a business consultancy, blamed the power cuts on disorganized public administration rather than on a financial deficit or fuel shortage, pointing out that there have been 14 electricity ministers over the past 10 years, two of whom served twice.

And for decades, experts have warned of a looming energy crisis in Kuwait, citing delays in building power plants to keep pace with rising demand.

“In a country like Kuwait, which has all the capabilities that make it among the advanced countries, when the electricity cuts off in the hot summer, you know that there is a flaw in the planning,” Yousef al-Zalzalah, a former minister and a former member of Parliament, wrote on social media.

But even in Gulf countries like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — which have smoother-moving bureaucracies and have managed to avoid widespread power outages — governments have been unable to fully insulate their people from the effects of climate change.

Emissions from fossil fuels, resources that have made their states rich, are the main drivers of global warming, to which the region is particularly vulnerable. Air pollution and scorching temperatures degrade the health of migrant workers whose jobs often expose them to the elements, force citizens indoors and for the wealthiest, prompt a seasonal exodus to cooler climes in Europe and North America.

Kuwait relies mainly on natural gas for electricity generation, and its consumption per capita increased 16 percent from 2000 to 2021, according to the International Energy Agency.

In August, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation announced that it had secured a 15-year supply of liquefied natural gas from Qatar, building on other such deals.

Still, many Kuwaitis fear that the problem will only get worse as time goes on.

“The population is increasing, therefore electricity consumption is also increasing — of course we are going to see more power cuts,” said Sami al-Ajmi, 42, a state oil refining company employee. “The government is trying to do their best, but we haven’t seen any solutions yet.”

Ismaeel Naar contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.