2021 Lebanese Blackout
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The 2021 Lebanese blackout was a
power outage A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an electricit ...
in Lebanon that started on 9 October 2021, after two of the country’s power plants shut down when they ran out of diesel fuel. The two power stations provided 40% of Lebanon's electricity. Due to this, the power grid was shut down nationwide. The outage ended on 10 October, 24 hours after the start.


Background

Because of the ongoing
Lebanese liquidity crisis The Lebanese liquidity crisis is an ongoing financial crisis affecting Lebanon, that became fully apparent in August 2019, and was further exacerbated by both the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon (which began in 2020) and the 2020 Beirut port explos ...
, the
Lebanese pound The pound or lira ( ar, ليرة لبنانية ''līra Libnāniyya''; French: ''livre libanaise''; abbreviation: LL in Latin, in Arabic, historically also £L, ISO code: LBP) is the currency of Lebanon. It was formerly divided into 100 piast ...
lost over 90% of its value, leaving the government unable to pay for fuel imports, resulting in a general shortage of fuel in Lebanon, including for its power plants. The fuel shortage also meant that people and businesses could not run their private fuel-powered electricity generators.


Outage

The power outage started on 9 October, after the Zahrani power station ran out of fuel. The day before, the Deir Ammar station had also stopped running for the same reason. With both plants shut down, national power production was limited to 270 megawatts, making the grid severely unstable, so that the grid was shut down nation-wide at noon that day. Power had not been expected to come back on for several days, although that turned out to be wrong. On 10 October,
Banque du Liban Banque du Liban (BdL, ar, مصرف لبنان, English: Bank of Lebanon) is the central bank of Lebanon. It was established on August 1, 1963, and became fully operational on April 1, 1964. It is currently headed by Riad Salameh. One of the ma ...
, Lebanon’s central bank, released $100 million in foreign currency to the Lebanese Energy Ministry to enable it to import fuel. In the meantime, the
Lebanese army ) , founded = 1 August 1945 , current_form = 1991 , disbanded = , branches = Lebanese Ground ForcesLebanese Air Force Lebanese Navy , headquarters = Yarze, Lebanon , flying_hours = , websit ...
delivered 6,000 kilolitres (1.6 million gallons) of diesel fuel to both of the two power plants, and power was restored that day, after 24 hours of the blackout. On 8 January 2022, EDL reported a total blackout across Lebanese territory as of 17:27 (1527 GMT).


Protests

Protests took place in Halba outside the offices of
Électricité du Liban Électricité du Liban (Electricity of Lebanon; EDL) is a public industrial and commercial establishment in Lebanon which controls 90% of the country's electricity production, transmission and distribution activities. History Ottoman Gas Comp ...
, the state-owned power company, as well as protesters blocking roads with burning tires in
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
.


See also

* Energy in Lebanon *
Energy crisis An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particular, those that supply n ...


References

{{reflist 2021 in Lebanon Electric power in Lebanon October 2021 events in Asia Energy crises