By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 22 December 2013:
Following yesterday’s brief announcement by the General Electricity Company of Libya’s (GECOL) Station Control Engineer . . .[restrict]Mohammed Almujbary that Sarir power station was working at its full capacity of 450 MW, GECOL announced today that the power station had once more stopped production.
It had shut down because of security concerns, the station’s executive manager, Hashim Al-Maliki, told the Libya Herald. “We shut down the generators at ten this morning”.
Two days ago, he said, army units guarding the power station as well as the Sarir and Messla oil fields had been had had to repel gunmen who attacked the Al-Sarir farm project 40 kilometres east of the station. Although five of the attackers had been killed and one caught and the rest had fled to Jakharra and Tazerbu, the sound of heavy artillery firing had panicked employees, Al-Maliki said.
He added said that because all the power stations in Libya were connected in the national electricity grid, it was highly probable that the stoppage would mean power cuts across the country unless the Zueitina station north of Ajdabiya upped its production.
Earlier today, a statement by GECOL confirmed that workers at the power station had stop working to because of security concerns resulting from the fighting and that output at the station was now down to zero.
As a result, the statement continued, GECOL expected that there wuld be power cuts again across the whole of Libya.
The Sarir power station had been embroiled in the various political, economic and social demands of the local Tebu community. It was only on 11 December that the road blockade preventing trucked fuel supplies to the power station by Tebu protestors had been ended.
This latest stoppage was as a result of what is believed to be Zwai militiamen attacking those regular army units in the region which happen to be made up of Tebus.
With input by Tazeez Hasairi and Jamal Adel. [/restrict]
