Électricité du Liban headquarters in Beirut. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today/File photo)
BEIRUT — Électricité du Liban (EDL) announced Monday that it will increase the supply of power to several Beirut neighborhoods by an additional two hours per day starting Oct. 1.
Those neighborhoods include Achrafieh, al-Hikmeh, Rmeil, Medawar, Gemmayzeh, al-Bashura, Karantina, al-Nahr, al-Manara, Ras Beirut and Commodore.
These neighborhoods, which started receiving six hours of electricity per day, were chosen for the new uppage because they have a network violation rate of less than 10 percent, EDL stated.
In March, EDL launched an inspection of all 800 substation connection points to combat illegal encroachment.
In April 2022, EDL set this threshold to differentiate between "good performers" and "bad performers," and promised to supply more power to the former.
According to the state supplier, 216 medium-voltage substations were already inspected as part of its plan to remove encroachments from the electrical network. EDL plans to check the remaining 584 connection points throughout the country.
EDL has been suffering for years from losses and thefts of its network, insufficient capacity and obsolete equipment.
Insufficient power provision from EDL forces citizens to rely on solar panels and costly private generators which, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate, can account for most of the spending in households with the lowest income.
On Nov. 1 lat year fares were modified for the first time since 1994 to buy fuel to power the electrical grid, and the collection of invoices was finalized until December 2022.