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The Deir Ammar and Zahrani power plants ceased operation due to exhaustion of diesel fuel, sparking sporadic protests.
Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanon’s two main power plants affected by the crisis have ceased operations, effectively halting all national electricity supplies in the country.
Sources said that due to the shortage of diesel fuel, the Deir Ammar and Zahrani plants were closed on Saturday, and power generation has been very limited in recent months.
Residents of Harba in the northern Acre province protested at the regional office of the state-run producer Electricite du Liban (EDL). In nearby Tripoli, angry residents blocked roads and burned tires with cars after power outages exacerbated water shortages.
“There is no fuel, and the amount of power generation is limited, so frequency changes are disrupting the grid,” Marc Ayoub, an energy researcher at the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera. “It happened about 16 times in the past two weeks because the amount of electricity generated was too small compared to the amount of electricity needed to stabilize the grid.”
EDL has less than 200 megawatts of power generation.
Local media reported that the authorities are scrambling to obtain fuel from their reserves in order to provide part of the country’s electricity to several affected areas.
EDL said in a statement that a batch of fuel will arrive on Saturday night and will be unloaded early next week to increase the power plant’s capacity to 500 MW. Another batch of fuel from the Iraq deal will arrive later this month. At the same time, EDL stated that it is communicating with oil facilities in Tripoli and Zahrani to purchase a limited amount of fuel to power the power plant in the next few days.
The development of the ongoing power crisis in Lebanon occurred about a week after two floating Turkish power barges stopped generating electricity after the government contract expired.
EDL continues to struggle financially to secure the fuel needed for the operation of its power plants. Throughout the year, it has been relying on cash advances from the central bank and other expedient measures to maintain operations.
Lebanon’s ongoing power problems have exacerbated a severe economic and financial crisis, plunged three-quarters of the population into poverty, and devalued the Lebanese pound by nearly 90%.
The fuel crisis has paralyzed most of the public life, forcing most of the population to rely almost entirely on expensive private generators to maintain lighting. Hospitals are also struggling, worrying about the safety of patients.
Iran-backed Hezbollah is transporting Iranian fuel to the country through Syria through illegal border crossings. At the same time, the Lebanese government continues to negotiate with the governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to implement a plan to power the country through Egyptian natural gas.
Lebanon has also reached a high-sulfur fuel exchange agreement with the Iraqi government in exchange for medical services, and then Lebanon will exchange fuel with supplies compatible with its power plants.
Lebanon’s inefficient power sector is also extremely expensive. In a report published to international donors in May 2020, the government estimated that the power sector spends about $1.6 billion in public funds each year, although some reports suggest that it may lose up to $2 billion. This accounts for about 3% of the country’s entire economy. Experts told Al Jazeera that it almost made up for half of the public debt of the country that is short of funds.
However, experts say that any major reforms are hampered by corruption and the vested interests of the country’s minority political parties.
Lebanon’s recently appointed Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that one of his first tasks is to resolve the country’s severe fuel crisis and resume negotiations to develop an IMF-approved plan to restore the country’s suffering. A hard-hit economy.
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