BEIRUT: Electricite du Liban Saturday warned of further electricity cuts across Lebanon if it does not receive funds from the Finance Ministry within a week. The state-run company said in a statement that in order to ration its dwindling fuel reserves, it was forced to partially shut down the Deir Ammar power plant on March 21, which reduces the plants production to 300 megawatts, equivalent to a cut of about three hours of electricity supply.

Without the funds to purchase more fuel, EDL warned it would have to shut down the entirety of the Deir Ammar plant as of March 26 followed by the Zahrani plant on March 28. The statement said the Finance Ministry approved a LL4 billion ($2.6 million) advance last month but that EDL had not received an adequate amount.

The ministry confirmed in a statement that the decree to release the funds has been signed by President Michel Aoun but has not been officially published. It added that it is compliant with the law and providing financial advances can only happen in accordance with the law, while criticizing EDL for its handling of the situation.

Yet again, the EDL has thrown its failure to manage this situation on others both in terms of reducing production and poor distribution, the statement said.

Last month, increased power cuts due to a fuel shortage led to protests in parts of Beirut.

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