The General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) responded yesterday, through various unofficial briefings and leaks to media, to Tripoli based Libyan Prime Minister, Abdel Hamid Aldabaiba’s ferocious public attack.
Speaking live on television and social media during last Saturday’s (18 July) Fourth Ordinary Cabinet Meeting of 2026, held in the city of Zliten, Aldabaiba called, in an unprecedented outburst of anger, for the head of GECOL to face serious charges.
This call followed increasing power cuts and load shedding (5 to 7 hours) since June which culminated in a total blackout last Saturday from Misrata in the west to the Egyptian border in the east. This was caused by the loss of 1,350 MW of generation. The blackout also caused a total shutdown of the eastern region section of the Man-Made River.
In response, GECOL briefed with leaked copies of letters, that it had warned that 1,000 megawatts of power generation have been lost due to gas and heavy fuel supply shortages to power stations
Specifically, it claimed the drop in gas pressure from certain southwestern fields—which require development. This, it pointed out, is the responsibility of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Aldabaiba’s Tripoli Government.
It said it had formally requested a temporary halt to gas exports to Italy to meet the needs of the Libyan people, but that its request was completely ignored.
GECOL said that the Attorney General’s Office is fully apprised through documentation of this.
GECOL said there is an unprecedented gas production crisis in Libya – affecting supplies to power stations.
GECOL also briefed that the recent clashes in the city of Zawia damaged the Zawia power plant, resulting in a loss of approximately 700 megawatts of generation capacity.
It briefed that engineers from US company GE, who were assigned to the plant, fled the country following the Zawia incident. It added that their security is the government's responsibility, which it failed to uphold. It claimed the government chose to remain silent on the matter in order not to scare off other foreign companies in the country.
GECOL claimed that its Director General, Abdalla Hamouda, formally notified Aldabaiba and the Attorney General’s Office in writing on 4 June regarding the gravity of the situation caused by gas and fuel shortages.
GECOL claimed that in the correspondence, the Director called for immediate and urgent intervention to rectify the situation before reaching a point where network stability would be compromised—which, unfortunately, is exactly what has now happened.
The electricity crisis raises many questions
Aldabaiba’s outburst against GECOL and the return of lengthy power cuts and a blackout raise many old and new questions.
Beyond spending directly on power generation and maintenance, Aldabaiba needs to consider, through his government’s policies and its support for the NOC - the issue of guaranteed fuel supplies to power stations.
The PM also needs to bite the bullet and consider reforming the subsidies of electricity prices to encourage the rationalisation of consumption.
His government’s low-key support of the adoption of renewables must also be questioned.
Finally, if we are to believe that GECOL had anticipated these shortfalls and had indeed informed Aldabaiba, was his public outburst against the company simply showboating to deflect blame?
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