Lebanon was plunged into a nationwide blackout on Wednesday afternoon after a technical failure at the Deir Ammar power plant led to a complete shutdown of electricity production across all thermal power stations operated by Electricity of Lebanon (EDL).
The outage, which began around 1:30 PM, disrupted power supply across vast swaths of the country, including areas served by the Litani River Authority, such as West Beqaa, Jezzine and surrounding regions.
Emergency repair crews acted swiftly to partially restore the grid, managing to restart the Zahrani power plant. However, the facility is currently operating at a reduced capacity of just 100 megawatts—far below the national demand.
The crisis is compounded by a near-total halt in hydroelectric production, as the country grapples with one of its driest seasons in years. Water levels at Lake Qaraoun, a key reservoir for hydroelectric power, remain critically low at just 43 million cubic meters, with the total reservoir volume estimated at 65 million cubic meters.
This latest blackout underscores the fragility of Lebanon’s energy infrastructure, long plagued by chronic underinvestment, political mismanagement and systemic corruption.
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