By Jamal Adel
Tripoli, 14 December 2013:
Sarir power station in Eastern Libya has returned to normal operating output, the plant’s manager has . . .[restrict]said. Blockades by Tebu protestors which stopped fuel supplies and halted production at the plant were suspended last Wednsday.
Hashim Al-Malki, the manager at Sarir power station, has told the Libya Herald that work resumed at the plant on Thursday but technical problems caused by the blockade meant maintenance had to be done before normal operation could be resumed.
Sarir station, one of the larger ones in the country, was producing 500 MW of electricity before blockades began. Production stopped completely during the protests. Current output is 230 MW.
Malki explained that one of the biggest problems for the power station was dealing with the backlog of fuel trucks waiting to provide the plant with petrol. The plant needs roughly 30 tons of fuel per day to run at normal capacity, supplied by 35 trucks. Because reserves at the plant were exhausted over the course of the blockade it would take time for the back-up tanks to be replenished and only a few trucks could service the station at any one time, Malki said.
While Tebu protestors have suspended action at the power station, they remain in the vicinity while representatives have gone to Tripoli to meet with the government. They are demanding the linking of Rebyana in Kufra to the national grid, the creation of a municipal council in the town and the granting of a sub-municipal council for Tebu areas in Kufra where at present all council members are Arab.
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