BEIRUT: Lebanon is set to suffer more electricity blackouts in the coming days as the Deir Ammar and al-Zahrani power plants will close due to insufficient fuel supplies, Electricite du Liban said Friday.

A ship loaded with fuel has been docked at the Deir Ammar plant since June 28, but the group is awaiting payment from the Central Bank and as such has been unable to offload the cargo. As a result, stockpiles have become dangerously low, forcing EDL to switch off the two plants sequentially to avoid completely exhausting supplies and damaging machinery.

It will reduce the total production capacity by about 150 megawatts and lead to a prolonged period of around four days, until the payment credit issue is clarified, the group said in a statement, adding that the situation was "beyond the control of EDL."

The state run electricity company also said that once the payment credit is opened, the cargo can be offloaded and electricity supplies will be restored to previous levels. The two plants are estimated to feed around 10 percent of the countrys power production.

The decision will be met with despair by residents, who have already been crippled by severely reduced power in recent weeks.The electricity shortage has caused further concern as the weather has heated up with households unable to use air conditioning machines or fans, while the lack of electricity has also hampered water pumps. In some regions of the country, residents have been living without power for up to 20 hours a day. In addition, those usually able to fall back on private generators that make up for the state shortfall have also been hit from a scarcity of diesel.

The shortages have arisen from the Central Banks failure to pay invoices on time, as the Bank struggles to rustle up enough US dollars to cover the caretaker governments subsidy scheme on essential goods. The Banks foreign currency reserves have diminished to around $14 billion and consequently can no longer afford to pay importers for essential goods.

Over the last month, the caretaker government has taken bigger steps to lift subsides which caused prices to jump at the same time as an acute shortage of fuel, food and medicines has caused misery to the daily lives of the population.

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