The Zahrani power plant south of Beirut. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
BEIRUT — Électricité du Liban announced Saturday night that its power service had gone down across the country, blaming the disturbance on protesters who had “stormed the main substation in Aramoun,” a town in Aley.
Here’s what we know:
• In a statement, the state-run power utility said that its services had gone down at 5:27 p.m. across all of Lebanon after “protesters in the Aramoun area on the evening of Jan. 8, 2022 stormed the main substation… endangering their personal safety and the safety of the station’s workers.”
• EDL added that the protesters’ tampering in the substation, including opening circuit breakers between the Zahrani power plant and the Aramoun facility, disrupted the stability of the electrical grid, causing a nationwide power outage.
• “EDL once again alerts the citizens, in the interest of their personal safety and that of the public… to the danger of entering substations, power plants and all other establishments” of the state owned company, the statement, published by the NNA, added.