EDL gives public administrations 5 days to pay bills or face power cuts

BEIRUT — Electricité du Liban (EDL), Lebanon’s state power provider, issued an ultimatum Friday giving all public administrations and institutions "five working days," starting Monday, to settle their "outstanding debts and electricity bills," according to a statement by the public utility. Public hospitals are exempt from the warning for "humanitarian reasons," EDL said.

EDL also called for the collection, “within one month from today,” of electricity bills corresponding to consumption in Palestinian refugee camps. The utility further announced plans to resume campaigns against illegal connections to the grid, “with the support of the security forces and in coordination with the relevant judicial authorities,” while also seeking to “strengthen and accelerate the collection of overdue electricity bills.”

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EDL said it would also “reduce electricity supply hours in regions where non-technical losses are high and collection rates are low,” while concentrating supply hours, as far as possible given current circumstances, in areas with the lowest rates of non-technical losses. It did not specify which regions would be affected.

The utility attributed the measures to an “emergency situation” caused by the “unprecedented rise in petroleum product prices due to the repercussions of the war in the region,” following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one-fifth of the world’s oil passed before the conflict began.

“The global price of diesel has approached $1,500 per metric ton, whereas EDL had based its 2026 budget on a price of around $680,” the institution said, representing an increase of between 88% and 91%. “This situation exceeds the establishment’s financial capacity, as it is a global issue affecting the petroleum sector and must be addressed by the government as a case of force majeure,” it added.

The measures also reflect the “repercussions of the war on Lebanon,” EDL said. The utility, which currently provides an average of only six hours of electricity per day, cited “non-technical losses and the decline in electricity bill collection rates in several regions, as well as the accumulation of overdue bills owed by public administrations and institutions” as threats to “the continuity of public service and the sustainability of electricity supply for citizens and vital public infrastructure in the country.”

EDL has conducted several campaigns in recent years to crack down on illegal connections to its network, which account for part of the utility’s financial losses.