Turkish power firm halts generation for Lebanese grid

BEIRUT: Lebanon lost as much as a quarter of its mains electricity supply last week when a Turkish firm halted power generation, the latest blow to the crisis-hit country already suffering long blackouts. Lebanon’s ailing electricity sector is facing dire cash shortages, as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis since the 19751990 civil war.

The caretaker energy minister has for months warned the country was heading to “total darkness” if no emergency funds were secured to keep the lights on.

Karpowership said it had been left with little choice but to cease production from its two power barges moored off Lebanon’s coast after months of delayed payment and in the face of a prosecutor’s threat to seize the vessels.

“We deeply regret shutting down” the barges in the coastal areas of Zouk and Jiyeh, the

Turkish company said in a statement.

“For 18 months, we have been exceedingly flexible with the state, continually supplying power without payment or a payment plan, because the country was already facing very hard times,” it said.

But “no company can operate in an environment with such direct and undue risks”.

A Karpowership source said the remaining fuel in the barges’ power plants ran out at 0500 GMT and transmission to the Lebanese grid ceased. The source said the company was owed more than $100 million by the Lebanese state but was equally concerned about the prosecutor’s order.

In early May, a Lebanese prosecutor banned the barges from leaving the country over the alleged payment of illicit commissions, accusations that could lead to a $25 million penalty, a Lebanese judicial source said at the time.

— AFP File Photo Lebanese journalists on a guided tour standing aboard the Turkishowned MV Karadeniz Powership Fatmagul Sultan viewing the other powership Esra Sultan, both moored off the shore of the Lebanese town of Zouk Mosbeh, north of the capital Beirut.