Lebanon has been completely plunged into darkness since Saturday. Due to lack of fuel, all units of the country’s largest power plant have been shut down. This Sunday, Algeria decided to come to Lebanon’s aid.
On Saturday, the last operating unit of the Zahrani power plant, the largest in the country, was forced to shut down due to the complete exhaustion of fuel reserves.
The information was given at the end of yesterday Saturday by the public supplier Electricité du Liban (EDL) in a press release, specifying that the shutdown of the last operational unit of the plant ” led to a total cut of electricity across the territory.”
Algeria decides to send quantities of fuel to Lebanon
The power outage affected essential facilities including “the airport, port, water pumps, sewage systems and prisons,” the EDL added in its statement.
The public supplier stressed that the units will be reactivated “depending on the available fuel reserves, once the necessary fuel has been secured”, specifying that the current will be gradually restored to its previous level.
This Sunday, August 18, the President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the immediate sending of quantities of fuel to Lebanon to face this new and serious energy crisis.
According to Algerian Television, President Tebboune instructed Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui to contact his Lebanese counterpart Najib Mikati to inform him of the decision to send a quantity of fuel to operate the country’s power plants.
An energy crisis aggravated by the economic crisis
Algeria has in fact decided to send, “immediately” quantities of fuel to Lebanon to “operate the power stations and restore electricity in the country”, the same source added.
Let us recall that since the beginning of the economic crisis in Lebanon in 2019, the energy crisis has continued to worsen. Most of the Lebanese population faces regular power outages.
With diesel-powered generators, the Lebanese state-owned company supplies electricity at irregular intervals, sometimes for only two hours a day in some parts of the country.
Power plants run by EDL have been regularly running out of fuel due to the country’s difficult economic situation. On Saturday, the last operational unit of the Zahrani power plant in southern Lebanon stopped working.
