BETHLEHEM, the capital of the Lebanon After the army provided emergency fuel supplies to the government on Sunday, Lebanon’s stuttering national electrical grid was brought back online, alleviating a daylong outage that served as a reminder of the country’s economic collapse.
Before Saturday, when they ran out of gasoline and ceased working totally, the two main power plants, which had been chronically short of fuel, were delivering only a few hours of electricity daily.
There has been a resumption of “regular” operations at Zahrani and Deir Ammar power facilities, according to Walid Fayyad, the energy minister, in a statement. This means that the network will be producing a few hours of power each day.
The emergency supplies will only last a few days, however. By the end of the month, Lebanon’s central bank will have freed up $100 million to import fuel, which would help improve energy generation, Mr. Fayyad said in a statement.
For their “quick response to reconnecting the electrical network,” he complimented the defence minister, the army commandant, and the heads of Electricité du Liban, Lebanon’s national energy provider.
Since Lebanon is in the midst of one of its worst economic crises in recent memory, the Saturday blackout had minimal impact on the lives of ordinary Lebanese. With a 90 percent drop in its value in just two years, the government has struggled to import petroleum. The cost of several items has increased threefold.
Private generators provide energy to Lebanese who can afford it, but even these are going dark as fuel sources become scarce.
