Before Ramadan, there was a lot of worry about the ongoing power problems. Yemen does not have the generating capacity to supply all of the energy demanded. Eventually, they will build new power plants (they want nuclear, God help us), but for now we have rolling blackouts. The government claimed that they would be buying more power from “neighboring” countries for Ramadan, but it asked people “not to use too much electricity.” I am a little dubious about the buying more power claim, as least for Sana’a power generating plants in KSA or Oman are a long ways away, and there’s a lot nothing at all in between them in Yemen. Asking people to conserve never works, we all know that. Unfortunately, one of Yemen’s many problems prevents them from doing what they should. In a functioning market, if the demand outstrips supply, you just raise the price until there is just enough supply to meet demand. This works, it makes sure that there aren’t any shortages and the profit is high enough that there is a powerful incentive to create more of the commodity in short supply. The usual complaint, that the poor will suffer more than anyone else isn’t too much of a problem here in Yemen. Everyone cooks on gas, and the poor here have very little to power with electricity… The problem here is the electrical utility does not seem to have to ability to cut people off for not paying bills. There are many reports of people owing vast sums of money to the electrical company, but if you know the right people, your electricity keeps coming. The other problem is obvious with just a look around Sana’a. The wiring here is a mess. People routinely tie into main power lines whenever they need electricity. It doesn’t seem likely that the power company really has any idea who is using the electricity. The first step in solving Yemen’s power issues is to clean up the distribution. If they know who is getting the power and they have the ability to turn off the power for nonpayment, I think we’d see a big improvement. Instead, everyone is holding out for Yemen’s nuclear power plants to come along. I really hope they don’t come into being, I can’t imagine many things more dangerous than this government with uranium…
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