The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy reported that a sudden flashover occurred in one of the main transformers at a major substation on September 6, activating protective systems that took the entire facility offline as a precaution. Ministry spokesperson Fatima Jawhar Hayat stated that the shutdown prevented further damage to grid components while several connected 132-kilovolt and 33-kilovolt substations also went out of service. The incident disrupted approximately 414 megawatts of electrical loads, according to the ministry’s assessment. Hayat added that technical teams moved quickly to isolate the fault and inspect the affected equipment.
Emergency and engineering teams were dispatched immediately to the site following the malfunction, the ministry said in a statement distributed through KUNA. The teams focused on restoring the main substation first before gradually reconnecting the linked facilities and electrical loads in a controlled sequence to ensure safety. Full power was restored to every impacted area later that Sunday, an update from the ministry confirmed. Technical staff continued monitoring the substation after resumption of service.
Areas affected by the outage included Salwa, Rumaithiya, Al-Bidaa, Mishref, Bayan, Mubarak Al-Abdullah and Sabah Al-Salem, all located within Hawally and Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorates, according to the ministry’s breakdown. Initial reports from the ministry had highlighted outages in parts of the two governorates without listing specific districts. The ministry noted that the power cuts also led to temporary disruptions to traffic lights and some essential services in the vicinity. Hayat explained that the protective response was standard procedure for such events.
This event marks the latest in a series of technical power disruptions in the region, with Times Kuwait having reported a similar malfunction at the Hawally main substation on July 14, 2026, that affected a limited section of Block 8. The ministry had also announced planned outages in Hawally, Mubarak Al-Kabeer and Sabah Al-Ahmad in April 2025 to perform maintenance amid high summer demand, according to Kuwait Local News. Such incidents have prompted ongoing reviews of grid stability by the ministry. Hayat commended the rapid work of the response teams in restoring normal operations.
The ministry thanked citizens and residents for their understanding and cooperation during the outage, a statement from Hayat noted. She indicated that further inspections would determine the precise root cause of the transformer flashover while preventive measures are implemented to strengthen grid reliability. Technical teams will maintain heightened monitoring of the substation in the coming days, according to the ministry. The spokesperson highlighted the coordinated efforts that minimized the duration of the disruption.
