Electricité du Liban wants to up its electricity provision for Eid al-Adha. (NNA)
BEIRUT — State power provider Électricité du Liban announced Thursday that the Deir Ammar (North Lebanon) power plant will resume operations Thursday at 2 p.m. to increase the electricity supply during the Adha holiday (July 9-12) This decision comes a day after the brief closure of Zahrani, the only other functional power plant in the country , due to unpaid funds to its operator Primesouth.
Here’s what we know:
• After the holidays, electricity provision will be modified to extend remaining fuel oil stocks as far as possible to avoid a total blackout while continuing to supply power to essential institutions — the airport and the port. These measures will remain in place until the arrival and offloading of a tanker of fuel oil later this month. The fuel oil will be available for use by July 28 at the earliest, the statement said.
• Lebanon secured the fuel under its bilateral agreement with Iraq.
• Since 2019 Lebanon’s economic crisis has exacerbated the country's endemic electricity shortages, as the bankrupt state cannot secure funding to import the fuel needed to operate its plants.
• On Thursday, the Zahrani power plant was briefly shut, as the state was in arrears in its fresh dolars payments to Primesouth, operator of Zahrani and Deir Ammar plants. Two hours later, the power was restored, after high level contacts were held to release part of the arrears.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the dates of the Eid al-Adha holiday as July 10-14. The dates are July 9-12.