Benghazi, 17 August:
Electricity Minister Awad Barasi has collapsed and been taken to hospital in Benghazi, the Libya Herald can report.
The minister, . . .[restrict]who along with Mustafa Abushagur is one of two candidates in the running to be prime minister, was reportedly overcome with fatigue whilst visiting parts of the electricity network in the Libyan desert.
It is understood that the incident took place a couple of days ago, but that he is expected to make a full recovery.
Messages of support have been widespread on the social networking site Facebook, with many Libyans saying they would put to one side their frustrations over current failures in wishing Barasi a swift return to health.
In recent weeks Libya has been blighted by an ongoing, and worsening, series of power blackouts and internet failures across the country.
The cause is believed to be dramatically increased domestic electricity consumption, in particular usage of air conditioning units, during the month of Ramadan, which this year has taken place in mid-summer.
The scale of the problem was anticipated by Deputy Electricity Minister Mohammed Ali Ekhlat in an interview with the Libya Herald at the end of June. At that time, Ekhlat revealed that Libya had a total generation capacity of 5,000MW, but a peak demand of 5,100-200MW.
Ekhlat predicted that demand during August could exceed 5,700MW, precipitating the mass blackouts Libya is now experiencing.
Barasi is said to have been working hard in recent weeks to rectify these deficiencies, and the intensity of his work-schedule, combined with the heat and the strains of fasting, are said to have collectively contributed to his collapse. [/restrict]
