EDL network failure in Zouk repaired

The public provider Electricité du Liban (EDL) said Tuesday that it had repaired the failure that occurred Sunday on a high- and medium-voltage relay at the main Zouk plant due to humidity that Lebanon is experiencing amid a heat wave. The outage had caused a blackout across the country.

"The failure has been repaired. EDL should again supply between four and six hours of electricity per day," a source at the public entity told us.

EDL said Sunday that the cause of the breakdown was "a drop in the insulation of the connection bridges of one of the high-voltage transformers in the Zouk thermal power plant, due to humidity and high heat," noting that this "repeated and general outage on the network caused thermal overload on the steam turbine at the Deir Ammar plant, affecting the turbine shaft and preventing it from rotating."

The possibility that EDL and private generators might ration power production because of the heat wave triggered on Monday a heated verbal clash on social media between supporters of Energy Minister Joe Saddi, affiliated with the Lebanese Forces (LF), and his opponents, notably some supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which managed the same Ministry for several years.