National grid power restored after Mikati deal with Primesouth
Primesouth, the company that operates the al-Zahrani and Deir Amar power plants, resumed its services Thursday after a deal with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, media reports said.
“Mikati called Primesouth’s CEO and pledged to pay $7 million out of the company’s overdue fees in return for an instant activation of the power plants. The company has started operating the power plants, which will provide electricity within three hours,” al-Jadeed TV said.
MTV meanwhile said the $7 million would be paid from the funds Lebanon received from the International Monetary Fund as part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) program, after acting Central Bank Governor Wassim Mansouri “refused to pay from the bank’s reserves.”
“The Central Bank will not pay any dollar from the reserves to Primesouth or to other parties, and the state must pay from its accounts or from what’s left of the SDR funds,” LBCI TV quoted a Central Bank source as saying.
“The prime minister has been informed of this stance,” the source added.
In a crisis-hit country that heavily relies on power generators, the outage resulting from the services suspension had threatened to disrupt operations at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, the Port of Beirut and other key state facilities.
Source: Naharnet
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