In my last post I was critical. I pointed at the grid and laughed because if I did not laugh I would cry. A country that cannot cool its own homes signing deals with Google and Microsoft to host data centres that never sleep.
But I was not laughing at the idea. I was laughing at the timing.
Because I want those data centres. A data centre is a building filled with thousands of computers that store and process information for millions of people at the same time. They are the backbone of the modern digital economy. And I want them here. The jobs they bring. The technology they attract. The signal they send to the world that Kuwait is open and serious. And as someone who has watched plan after plan in this country get announced with confidence and delivered with delay, I do not want this one to fail.
So instead of pointing at the problem again, let me point at the solution. Because it exists. Other countries had the same problem. And they fixed it.
The problem.
Kuwait makes less power than it needs. It has twenty-one gigawatts on paper. In peak summer, only seventeen work. Paper gigawatts do not cool houses. Every summer the demand is higher than what the plants can produce. The government cuts power to neighbourhoods. Imports electricity from neighbouring countries. And asks citizens to please switch off their air conditioning at noon in fifty-degree heat.
Who else had this problem.
Egypt. In 2014. Worse than Kuwait. Their demand exceeded their supply by five gigawatts. To put that in perspective, five gigawatts is roughly the output of the entire Az-Zour South complex, Kuwait’s largest power station. Imagine that entire station disappearing from the grid. That was Egypt’s gap. Every day. Blackouts were not a summer event. They were daily. Every neighbourhood. Every city. All year.
What Egypt did.
They treated it as a national emergency. One programme. One boss. One deadline. They signed one deal with Siemens to build three massive power plants. They fast-tracked everything. Land. Permits. Financing. All under one authority that did not change when ministers changed.
And they did something else that matters more than the plants themselves. They slowly raised the price of electricity. Countries that have successfully reformed energy prices did it in the same order. Money first. Price second. A rebate is simple: the government puts cash into your bank account before raising the price. You receive the rebate. Then the tariff goes up. The net effect on your wallet is smaller because the rebate already covered part of it. The order matters. Money first. Price second. Not the other way around.
How long it took.
Four years. The three plants were delivered in twenty-seven and a half months from financial close to full operation. Egypt went from daily blackouts to discussing exporting electricity to its neighbours within five years.
What Dubai did.
Dubai added solar energy on a schedule. Not all at once. Paced. Managed. Rooftop solar across more than eight thousand buildings. Utility-scale solar in the desert. All on a calendar that matched what the grid could handle without being overwhelmed. Every megawatt announced was a megawatt delivered. Jordan tried the same thing but too fast. They added so much solar so quickly that the grid could not absorb it and they had to freeze the entire programme. Dubai paced it. Jordan rushed it. The lesson is clear.
What Kuwait needs to do.
Five things. None of them new. All of them available.
One boss. Kuwait has had twelve ministers responsible for this file since 2020. Egypt’s programme had one. Appoint one person. Give them authority that survives cabinet reshuffles. One signature. One owner. And from my heart, I wish that person would be Dr. Sabeeh Al-Mukhaizeem. A Yale doctorate in Electrical Engineering. A computer science degree from UC San Diego. An academic career in Kuwait’s education system. And now the Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy, Was Acting Minister of Finance, and Chairman of KDIPA simultaneously. He is already sitting in every seat this job requires. The technical depth to understand the engineering. The financial authority to unlock the funding. The investment mandate to attract the partners. Kuwait rarely puts the right person in the right seat. This time it did. Keep him there.
Real dates. Publish a procurement calendar with actual deadlines. Kuwait already proved this works. The Az-Zour North 2&3 deal, four billion dollars, was signed in February 2026. The machinery exists. Use it again. Plant after plant. And put the State Audit Bureau inside each transaction from the beginning, not at the end when it is too late to fix anything.
Fix the price gently. This is the hardest one. Kuwait’s electricity tariff has not changed since 1966. Citizens pay less than one cent per kilowatt hour. It covers a small fraction of the real cost. Changing it is politically terrifying. But it can be done without pain if the order is right. Send the rebates first. Cash into household accounts. Real money that people can see and use. Then raise the tariff gradually. Not overnight. Over years. Then install smart meters so people can see exactly what they are using. Then set efficiency standards for air conditioners and appliances so the machines themselves use less. Studies done on Kuwait’s own economy, not foreign models, Kuwaiti studies, show that reform with rebates grows the economy. Without rebates it shrinks. The order is everything. Rebates first. Everything else second.
Pace the solar like Dubai. Kuwait has the Shagaya solar zones ready. The sun is not the problem. The problem is tendering too much at once and overwhelming the grid the way Jordan did. Kuwait needs to tender on a planned calendar, sized to what the grid can absorb at each stage. Every megawatt announced must be a megawatt that can actually be delivered and connected. Announcements that cannot be delivered are not plans. They are press releases.
Shrink the imports. Kuwait currently buys electricity from its neighbours through the GCC Interconnection grid every summer. That is fine for now. It is a bridge. But bridges are meant to be crossed and left behind. Publish the import number every year. Make it public. Make it visible. Let the country watch it go down year by year. Open data forces honesty. When the numbers are public, everyone can see whether the plan is working or whether it is another announcement with no delivery. And if there is one person in this government who understands the power of open data, it is Dr. Al-Mukhaizeem. Keep the numbers open. Let the country watch.
The point.
Egypt’s lesson fits in one sentence. The shortage ended when the plan got an owner, a deadline, and honest prices. In that order.
All three are available to Kuwait. For the cost of a signature.
