The “Fatmagul Sultan,” docked of the coast of Zouk. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT – The state power supply in Lebanon may decrease by several more hours after the Turkish firm Karpowership announced on Friday that its two power barges had stopped supplying Lebanon with electricity because its contract had expired.
Here’s what we know:
• “As of October 1, our contract with [Électricité du Liban] has ended, and we will begin the process of withdrawing the two power ships,” a Karpowership spokesperson said in a statement, adding, “We are acutely aware of the country’s ongoing energy crisis.”
• The statement said the power ships’ supply — about 370 megawatts, or a quarter of the total power production in Lebanon — amounted to about four to six hours of electricity a day, while the energy expert Marc Ayoub told L’Orient Today that he estimates it amounts to at least three hours a day. Lebanon’s grid has a total capacity of some 2,000 megawatts.
• Lebanon is already grappling with a worsening electricity crisis, with the state utility, EDL, unable to provide more than a maximum of a handful of hours of power throughout the country, plunging residents into darkness for hours at a time. EDL warned last week of an impending total state electricity blackout, saying its fuel stores had declined sharply.
• Karpowership, a subsidiary of the Turkish energy company Karadeniz, has since 2013 supplied electricity to Lebanon from the two ships, which are anchored off the coasts Jiyyeh and Zouk. The company previously shut down its barges in May over the Lebanese government’s payment arrears and in the face of a legal issues. The firm has denied any wrongdoing, and it resumed providing electricity to Lebanon in June in a decision that it said in a statement was “made out of good will.”
• Lebanon owed Karpowership some $180 million as of the end of 2020, a policy paper published in March by the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy found.
• “During our eight years operating in Lebanon, despite all the challenges, we have done all we can to support the Lebanese people as the government addresses fundamental challenges the country faces,” the company’s spokesperson said on Friday.
• Neither the Energy Ministry or EDL could not be immediately reached for comment.