Khartoum, August 03 (Darfur24)
Repairs to damage caused by a fire at the Merowe Dam power station will take several days, Sudan’s Ministry of Energy said on Sunday, after a technical assessment found extensive damage to key electricity transmission feeders.
A fire broke out on Saturday in one of the station’s cables, causing a widespread power outage that affected Khartoum, River Nile, Northern and Red Sea states.
In a statement, the ministry said the fire severely damaged the main feeders of the Merowe–Al-Murkhiyat and Merowe–Atbara transmission lines, disrupting electricity supplies from Sudan’s largest hydroelectric power station.
It stated that maintenance teams had begun repair work but warned that restoring electricity to the affected states would take several days.
Energy Minister Al-Mutasim Ibrahim Ahmed travelled to the Merowe Dam immediately after the incident to oversee the emergency response. He instructed technical teams to expedite repairs and ensure the provision of the spare parts needed to restore the damaged infrastructure.
The minister also directed electricity authorities to maximize supply from alternative generation stations and reconfigure the national grid to distribute the available electricity as efficiently and fairly as possible while investigations into the cause of the fire continue.
The Merowe Dam is Sudan’s largest electricity generation project and the backbone of the national power grid. Any disruption to its generation or transmission network typically results in widespread power outages across multiple states.
Sudan’s electricity sector has faced mounting challenges since the outbreak of war in April 2023, with repeated attacks and damage to power plants, substations and transmission lines, compounded by shortages of spare parts and difficulties carrying out maintenance.