News Desk
MALE’, Maldives — Just eight days after the State Electric Company, known as Stelco, celebrated a prestigious award for its Regional Scarda project, a massive power outage plunged the capital, Male’, and nearby Hulhumale’ into chaos for five hours on Sunday, exposing vulnerabilities in the nation’s infrastructure and casting a shadow over the leadership of Stelco’s managing director, Hussain Fahmy.
The Regional Scarda initiative, which connects electricity services across 35 islands into a single grid, earned Stelco first prize in the government-owned companies category at the Maldives Expo. President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu presented the award to Fahmy at a ceremony at the Social Center, a moment that briefly highlighted Fahmy’s leadership. But the triumph was fleeting.
At 12:47 p.m. today, Male’ and Hulhumale’ lost power due to what Stelco described as a “technical problem.” The company issued a public apology, stating it was working to identify and resolve the issue. A Stelco later revealed that the outage occurred when all generators were inexplicably turned off, though the precise cause remains unclear. As of this writing, electricity has not been fully restored to all areas, leaving residents and businesses in limbo.
The outage brought the capital’s economy to a standstill. Shops shuttered, services halted, and daily life ground to a halt. Regional Transport Link (RTL) offered free trips to mitigate disruptions for stranded passengers. Four major hospitals in the Male’ City Group — Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Darmavantha Hospital, Hulhumale’ Hospital, and Maldives Blood Service — relied on backup generators to maintain critical care, though Villimale Hospital was spared.
At 1:18 p.m., President Muizzu took to social media, calling the outage a “serious issue” and vowing that the government would take all necessary steps to prevent a recurrence. The Maldives Police Service announced 30 minutes later that an investigation was underway, a move that echoes public frustration over past infrastructure failures, including a suspicious water crisis during President Abdulla Yameen’s administration.
Fahmy’s leadership at Stelco is now under scrutiny. The award for Regional Scarda showcased his ambition to modernize the Maldives’ energy grid, but today’s outage raises questions about oversight and preparedness. With the cause still unknown and no timeline for full restoration, the public is demanding accountability. An economic impact assessment is pending, but the disruption has already left a mark on a nation reliant on consistent services to sustain its tourism-driven economy.
President Muizzu’s call for an investigation is a step toward transparency, but for many in Male’ and Hulhumale’, the focus is on restoring normalcy — and ensuring such a failure does not happen again.
