BEIRUT — Electricité du Liban, the state-owned electricity supplier, said in a statement Thursday that a ship carrying a delivery of 40,900 tons of fuel, announced two days ago, arrived off the coast of the Deir Ammar power plant in North Lebanon, and will unload part of its cargo. The unloading will not be completed for “a few days,” meaning that residents across Lebanon will be totally dependent on private generators for electricity until the power plant resumes functioning.
Here’s what we know:
• EDL said on Tuesday that the Deir Ammar power plant had shut down, and that the Zahrani power plant did so last Thursday.
• The public utility is supposed to resume supplying electricity on Sunday, April 24, by providing nearly 450 megawatts, which represents around 2 to 3 hours of power per day.
• The quantities of fuel supplied to EDL are part of an agreement concluded between Lebanon and Iraq last August. This contract makes it possible to acquire fuel for under one year. The deal states that Iraq is committed to supplying Lebanon with 1 million tons of fuel, which cannot be used by the country’s power plants, but which are swapped each month with a third-party supplier selected after a call for tenders. The first delivery took place in September 2021.