After completely shutting down on Friday, the Zahrani power plant in Lebanon will resume its operations Sunday morning, according to Electricité du Liban (EDL).
In its statement, EDL explained that the concerned foreign banks have resumed their payment procedures regarding the second part of gas oil which carriers have been parked next to the Zahrani station.
The ships are set to unload their oil this evening, which will provide the station with enough fuel to resume its partially operational duties.
This comes after the Zahrani powerplant, which provides almost 20% of the country’s electricity supply, has stopped functioning on Friday, due to the lack of fuel. This led to a full shut down of the electricity supply after some parts of the country were getting 2 hours of electricity per day.
The oil carriers had refused to offload their fuel because no dollars were being transferred to their bank accounts. With no fuel, the station went offline.
This has made private generators, which are also dealing with the crippling issue of the increase in fuel prices, the only source of power in the country.
It is unclear how long this load will last. Fears of possible complete blackouts in the future still remain.