By Libya Herald reporter.
Malta, 18 February 2015:
The General Electricity Company of . . .[restrict]Libya (GECOL) announced today that it has succeeded in operating the 150 MW first gas unit of the Benghazi North power station – four years after it was built. The unit was made operational by a Libyan workforce, GECOL added.
The unit works in isolation from the general network as a blackout backup when there is a general power cut.
By making this unit operational, GECOL said that it will no longer need to import power from neighbouring Egypt during blackouts. Moreover, the backup unit is able to respond to a power cut in real time, whereas importing power from the Egyptian network involves a considerable time lag, GECOL explained.
It will be recalled that Libya has been experiencing severe power cuts due to the fighting as well as the insecurity that has prevented foreign engineers from visiting Libya. These power cuts have been made even more severe by the shortage of gas supplies caused by the collapse in Libya’s oil production and are more severe in eastern Libya.
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