The Board of Directors of the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) held a meeting on Monday at the company’s HQ, to discuss practical steps to alleviate the power cut crisis, which have plunged entire areas into darkness.

The meeting, which was chaired by the company's CEO dealt with setting a quick concept to conduct maintenance work and massive overhauls for some generation units, in addition, to identify the companies that will accomplish the required work.

The officials also agreed on a mechanism for providing the generation units with necessary spare parts and maintenance requirements.

GECOL confirmed that the meetings will continue for this week and next week, in the presence of the managers of the targeted generation stations, in order to set an integrated program for the maintenance of several power stations and units, in order to raise the efficiency of the grid.

Later in the day, the GECOL announced an increase in the hours of power cuts, saying it was due to the high temperatures and the breakdown of some of generation units at Al-Zawiya power station, which led to a deficit in the public grid.

The company explained that it is forced to take such step, in order to preserve the safety and stability of the public network, urging consumers to fully cooperate with the company and to rationalize energy consumption.

Hours-long power cuts have persisted over the past years, despite repeated promises of devising a lasting solution from consecutive governments.

Outages have run up to more than 20 hours a day in some areas, forcing many to seek costly solutions, such as purchasing expensive private generators to make up for the inadequate electricity supply during the day.

The power crisis has fueled the grievances of a protest movement mobilized since June by activists. The move enjoyed support from official bodies including the mayors of Tajoura and Souq Al-Jumu'a, who called for an open strike on July, demanding the removal of the GECOL Board of Directors deemed incompetent and corrupt, according to the protesters.