Power cuts in Morocco caused by Algeria?

In Morocco, the controversy over intentional power cuts in certain regions is not subsiding. Any power cut in a city or neighborhood is unintentional, well-informed sources told Attaqa, specifying that the cuts are generally short-lived and can be periodic or urgent depending on the extent of maintenance operations.

According to a certain rumor, the lack of fuel supply to power plants would be the cause of these power cuts. This is not the case, assure sources from the Moroccan Ministry of Energy, stressing that this supply is stable and that the Moroccan energy sector is operating at full capacity. Other rumors have suggested that Algeria has cut off electricity to Morocco, leading to these load shedding in certain parts of the kingdom. These rumors are old and recurrent, indicate the same sources, recalling that the electrical interconnection between the two countries has been suspended since November 2021.

The Moroccan electricity system is connected to the Algerian electrical network by two 225 kilovolt and 400 kilovolt maritime interconnections. The first entered service in 1988 and includes two lines connecting Oujda to Ghazaouet and Oujda to Tlemcen, while the second, consisting of two 400 kilovolt lines, entered service in 2008 and connects the Boudarim station to that of Sidi Ali Boussidi.

The last time Morocco imported electricity from Algeria dates back to October 31, 2021, the date of the closure of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline by Algeria. Morocco is striving to achieve energy independence by increasing its renewable energy production. In 2023, the share of clean energy in Morocco’s electricity generation mix reached 21.02%, or 8.91 terawatt-hours, of which 14.77% was wind power (6.26 terawatt-hours). Coal accounted for 64.46% of Morocco’s electricity production, with 27.32 terawatt-hours. The kingdom plans to phase out this production by 2050.