By Libya Herald Staff.
Tripoli, 12 December 2013:
A spokesman for the state power company GECOL has said that rolling blackouts affecting Tripoli . . .[restrict]will cease by the end of the month.
Lofti Ghuam, a spokesman for GECOL, told the Libya Herald today that power outages which have left most areas of Tripoli without power, some for up to 12 hours a day, should end as maintenance and the installation of extra generating capacity to the power grid alleviates “undue stress” on the system.
There had been hopes at the beginning of the week that the power cuts would end as gas started to flow again from the Wafa field to the Ruwais power station near Nalut following the lifting of Amazigh blockades in the Jebel Nafusa. But, despite earlier claims by the Electricity Minister, Ali Muhairiq, suggesting that the cuts were the fault of Amazigh and Tebu protestors blockading the power stations, nothing changed.
Ghaum confirmed that the Ruwais power station now had a plentiful supply of gas with diesel supplies in reserve. Al-Hadi Busin, the manager for the power station, said that Ruwais was now producing 550 – 600 MW of electricity with four of its six turbines working at near full capacity, the other two being under maintenance.
Maintenance intended to finally end the cuts and the installation of extra generators should be complete over the next week, this newspaper was told. Five power stations are to have their capacity bolstered. Zawia, South Tripoli, Khoms, North Benghazi and Zueitina power stations, all of which feed into the national grid and help supply Tripoli, are to have new generators installed.
Busin claimed that the new installations had been delayed by the withdrawal of foreign energy companies from the country. Engineers meant to help set them up have been absent due to ongoing security concerns.
It has been confirmed that Zliten, Misrata, Tajoura and Sirte have not been affected by the power cuts.
One of the ironies of the cuts is that Tawergha also remains unaffected. It is said that streets lights continue to light the way at night despite the lack of any inhabitants.
With input from Callum Paton, Aimen Eljali and Taziz Hasairi [/restrict]
