Following the army’s supply of fuel to two key power stations that had run out, Lebanon’s electricity grid was back online on Sunday, ending almost a day of total blackout. The Deir Ammar and Zahrani plants had halted their operations after fuel ran out, causing the state electricity network to collapse for the second time this month.
Lebanon is battling economic turmoil, and the cash-strapped state has, in recent months, struggled to import enough fuel oil for electricity production.
No significant change was observed in the daily lives of Lebanese people during the blackout, as the state has been barely providing one to two hours of power a day for months.
On Sunday, Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad said that the country’s electricity grid was running once again. “The network is back to normal, as it was before fuel ran out at the plants in Deir Ammar and Zahrani,” Fayad stated, implying production would revert to the previous few hours a day.
Furthermore, the minister thanked the army for handing the provision of over 6,000 kilolitres of fuel, half of which he said went to each power station.
Consistent power cuts have been witnessed across Lebanon since the end of its civil war in 1990, but the economic crisis has made matters drastically worse. People who can afford commodities rely on private generators to keep appliances on. However, the rationing of power supplies has been observed nonetheless due to the scarcity of fuel.
