Karpowership restarts its two power ships deployed in Lebanon

Karpowership has restarted its two oil-fired power barges totalling 404 MW deployed in Lebanon, as a goodwill gesture, since the shutdown threatened to aggravate long daily power cuts. Earlier in May 2021, the company stopped the two power plants due to delayed payments and legal disputes with Lebanon. Karpowership has 18 months of overdue payments (over US$100m) and a Lebanese prosecutor decided to seize the ships pending an investigation into corruption allegations and fined them US$25m.

The two power ships have been anchored off Lebanon since 2013, supplying around 400 MW, i.e. around 1/4 of Lebanon's power supply. The country's power capacity is insufficient and auto-production electricity is quite developed, accounting for a third of total installed capacity. According to the World Bank, the percentage of electricity demand unmet by the state-owned power utility EDL has increased from 22% in 2008 to 37% in 2018, leading to frequent power outages and forcing the Lebanese to rely on diesel-fired generators, which are increasingly unavailable due to oil supply problems. In addition, Lebanon’s access to regional electricity grids has been cut due to the Syrian civil war (in 2010, almost 8% of the country’s electricity demand was imported from Syria and Egypt, against around 0.5% in 2019).