Zahrani power plant still out of order, rationing on the rise

24 hours have passed since workers at the Zahrani power plant pulled their production off the grid leaving a 400MW gap in Lebanon's electricity supply. Plans are underway to defuse the incident, but until now the situation remains the same.    

The workers resorted to these measures after receiving threats from the residents and mayors of neighboring regions, which escalated to the point of blocking the entrance to the plant with burning tires.     

The 130 protesting workers said that more than 40% of the power production in Lebanon is produced by the Zahrani plant, adding that the southern regions benefit from 20% of this production. The workers explained that if the 40 MW converter had not been replaced by a 10 MW converter, production would have been greater.       

In turn, Lebanon Electricity explained in a statement that a 20 MW converter would be delivered to Zahrani soon, to replace the current underpowered unit.    

Information made available to LBCI revealed that Director General of Lebanon Electricity Kamal Hayek referred this issue to the Public Prosecution, adding that Public Prosecutor Samih al-Hajj is set to send Maghdouche police to inspect the incident.        

Meanwhile, Lebanon electricity has formed a technical group to intervene if the need arises, to reconnect the plant to the distribution network. However, this procedure is still in discussions as it may create negative repercussions on the ground.       

As for the energy ministry, it will decide by early next week what measures to undertake.