The last group of production units at the Al-Zahrani plant in southern Lebanon has gone out of service, leading to a nationwide power outage. This situation has severely impacted critical facilities, including Rafic Hariri International Airport and the Port of Beirut. Electricité du Liban announced that the outage was due to the exhaustion of fuel necessary for electricity generation, marking a significant crisis in the country's energy supply.
The Al-Zahrani plant is Lebanon's primary electricity source, and its closure highlights the ongoing energy crisis exacerbated by financial difficulties faced by the government. The corporation has taken all precautionary measures to extend production but has ultimately run out of options. The restoration of power will depend on securing 'Gas Oil' fuel, with no clear timeline provided for when services will resume.
This power crisis is not new; over the past two years, Lebanon has experienced increasing frequency of outages due to a lack of foreign exchange to import fuel. Energy production has plummeted from a range of 1,600 to 2,000 megawatts per day to historically low levels, leaving the nation struggling to meet its electricity needs.
