Tripoli, Aug. 10, (dpa/GNA) – A nationwide power cut hit Libya on Wednesday due to “technical experiments” carried out by the government’s General Electricity Company.
The company said in a statement that they, along with the German company Siemens, were charging a new circuit in the Janzour area of southern Tripoli.
The power outage began around noon (1000 GMT).
The company had not announced the blackout in advance. After the end of the work, the power was turned back on in the early evening.
The barren desert state in North Africa has large oil and gas deposits. However, fuel is sometimes scarce in the country itself. In the past, there were frequent power cuts and blackouts, and the grid was often overloaded.
The blackout comes despite an improvement in Libya’s electricity grid this year, as people have not witnessed the frequent outages they had previously endured for years following the 2011 overthrow of dictator Moamer Gaddafi.
That was followed by chaos and infighting, which left the country’s infrastructure suffering from a lack of maintenance.
GNA