By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 13 March 2015:
Prime Minister Abdullah Thinni’s government revealed that it is seeking an international contractor to supply . . .[restrict]about 750 MW of power supply.
During a cabinet meeting held yesterday in the eastern city of Al-Beida called specifically to look at the various ‘’bottlenecks’’ that the government is facing in a number of sectors, the issue of the problem of power shortages in eastern Libya and finding a solution to them was discussed.
No further details were revealed regarding the possible contractor or the company’s nationality.
It will be recalled that while the whole of Libya has been suffering, on and off, extensive power cuts since the 2011 revolution, the eastern region has been experiencing the worse of the power cuts.
For example, whilst in the western region power cuts have averaged from 3-5 hours, in the east they have been much more frequent, for longer periods and with regular total blackouts.
Furthermore, it will also be recalled that Libya, prior to its political division and its financial crises, had had a contract in place to supply mobile electricity generators with APR Energy.
APR, however, had announced in November that it was ‘’temporarily suspending operations in Libya while final parliamentary ratification the contract (extension)..signed in July 2014” .
In January APR all but had given up on the Libya contract by announcing that it had decided on the ”reassignment of those assets (generators) to new opportunities, effective immediately’’.
The overnight lost the 450 MW of power generated by the APR mobile generators has left a gaping hole in Libya’s generation capacity – a deficit that it has not been able to make up and that is still contributing to the widespread powers cuts in Libya today. [/restrict]
