The 2021 Lebanese blackout was a power outage in Lebanon that started on 9 October 2021, after two of the country's power plants shut down when they ran out of diesel fuel. The two power stations provided 40% of Lebanon's electricity. Due to this, the power grid was shut down nationwide.[1]

Background

Because of the ongoing Lebanese liquidity crisis, the Lebanese pound lost over 90% of its value, leaving the government unable to pay for fuel imports,[2] resulting in a general shortage of fuel in Lebanon, including for its power plants. The fuel shortage also meant that people and businesses could not run their private fuel-powered electricity generators.[1]

Outage

The power outage started on 9 October, after the Zahrani power station ran out of fuel. The day before, the Deir Ammar station had also stopped running for the same reason. With both plants shut down, national power production was limited to 270 megawatts, making the grid severely unstable, so that the grid was shut down nation-wide at noon that day.[3][1] Power had not been expected to come back on for several days, although that turned out to be wrong.[4]

On 10 October, Banque du Liban, Lebanon's central bank, released $100 million to the Lebanese Energy Ministry to enable it to import fuel.[5] In the meantime, the Lebanese army delivered 6,000 kilolitres (1.6 million gallons) of diesel fuel to both of the two power plants, and power was restored that day, after 24 hours of the blackout.[6] On 8 January 2022, EDL reported a total blackout across Lebanese territory as of 17:27 (1527 GMT).

Protests

Protests took place in Halba outside the offices of Électricité du Liban, the state-owned power company, as well as protesters blocking roads with burning tires in Tripoli.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Lebanon left without power as grid shuts down". BBC News. 2021-10-09. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  2. ↑ "Lebanon's national electricity grid collapses". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  3. ↑ "Fuel shortage forces shutdown of Lebanon's main power plants". NBC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  4. ↑ "Lebanese power outage will last for several days - government official". Reuters. 2021-10-09. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  5. ↑ "Lebanon to receive $100 million to import fuel amid electricity crisis". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
  6. ↑ "Lebanon electricity back online after army supplies fuel". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2021-10-11.
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