The power station at Aluminium Bahrain’s (Alba) smelter has suffered a three-hour outage that is set to reduce production at the fifth reduction line for several months.

Alba says in a statement on the Bahrain Bourse that the incident will result in a loss of 3-5 per cent of the smelter’s total production for 2017.

The company has restored all power operations and reduction lines 1-4 are operating as normal, but reduction line 5 is running at reduced rates. It is not expected to be fully operational until the third quarter of 2017.

The loss from the incident will be part of an insurance claim, Alba says.

The company is conducting an investigation into the root cause of this incident. The recovery process is already under way and Alba has begun ‘re-starting’ the pots affected by the incident.

Qatar Aluminium (Qatalum) suffered a similar incident in 2010. It was estimated it could cost the company more than $500m in lost revenues.

Alba produces more than 971,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of primary aluminium, with products including standard and T-ingots, extrusion billets, rolling slab, properzi ingots and molten aluminium.

The company is adding a sixth potline to expand the smelter’s production capacity to 1.5 million t/y. US-based Bechtel was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in April 2016.