Lebanon’s Electricité du Liban (EDL) has announced a complete shutdown of electricity across all Lebanese territories, including essential facilities such as the airport, Port of Beirut, and prisons.
In a statement, the authorities urged residents to conserve water, explaining that “the shutdown occurred due to the forced exit of the last remaining production unit at the Zahrani power plant from the electrical grid, resulting from the depletion of the plant’s fuel reserves used for electricity production,” according to Lebanon 24.
EDL mentioned that it had “exhausted all possible precautionary measures to extend the energy production period under the current challenging circumstances.”
The institution further revealed plans to reactivate the units that were forcibly shut down, in alignment with the fuel supply that will become available after securing gas oil.
In the first official response to the crisis, Fadi al-Hassan, the Director-General of Civil Aviation at Beirut Airport, stated that “the airport is currently being powered by generators, and we hope the crisis does not last long,” as reported by the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar.
Raja Ali, a former advisor to the Minister of Energy and Water Resources in the previous government led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, warned in an interview with Russia’s Sputnik News Agency that Lebanon could face a complete power blackout in the coming days due to the depletion of the country’s fuel reserves.
The ministry failed to pay for the crude oil from Iraq, leading to a suspension of supplies. The Lebanese energy company is expected to start covering these costs from December onwards.
