EDL repairs outage on the Zouk network

BEIRUT — The public provider Electricité du Liban (EDL) said in a statement that its teams are responding to an outage on a high-voltage/medium-voltage relay at the main Zouk power plant, which occurred today, Aug. 10, 2025, at midnight.

"Currently, work is underway to gradually reconnect the gas-powered units at the Zahrani [South Lebanon] and Deir Ammar [North Lebanon] plants, as well as the reverse engines at Zouk [Kesrouan] and Jiyyeh [Chouf] to the network. In addition, maintenance teams are carrying out repairs and cooling work in order to reconnect the steam turbine at the Deir Ammar plant [150 megawatts,] which typically requires about 24 hours," EDL explained.

"The cause of the outage is a drop in the insulation of one of the insulators on the connector bridges of one of the high-voltage transformers at the main substation of the Zouk thermal power plant, due to humidity and intense heat. This repeated, widespread network outage caused thermal overload on the steam turbine at the Deir Ammar plant, affecting the turbine shaft and preventing its rotation," the provider added.

The country has been experiencing an episode of intense heat and humidity since last Thursday.