The CEO of the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL), Weam Al-Abdali, said Tuesday that three new electrical units will be put into service to support the public grid.

According to Al-Abdali, the units will be connected with the Al-Khums station, the southern Tripoli station, and the Zawiya station, after overhauling these sites, indicating that the step will have a tangible impact on the network.

"The power deficit in the public network ranges between 40-55%," said the GECOL head, rejecting the accusations that the load shedding process is being contrived by the company.

"The recent power cuts are due to the damage caused to power lines connecting the "Al-Hira" and "Al-Arqoub" areas, as a result of the aggression on Tripoli.

In a related context, Al-Abdali attributed the failure to link the stations to the controlling room for 6 years, to the damage of data transmission lines since the year 2011.

"There is no data transmitted between the generation stations and the controlling room, Al-Abdali explained, stressing that the General Transport Administration has assigned them to conduct a comprehensive inventory of the damages caused in this regard, to reconnect the stations to the control room.

He also pointed out that some business owners are running electricity 24 hours a day, taking advantage of the free electricity service provided to houses as well as businesses, due to the exceptional circumstances the country is experiencing.

"Efforts are currently under way to remedy the situation through, inter alia, launching a campaign in coordination with the General Administration of Consumer Services to activate the tax collection system, cut off illegal connections, and issue violations to those consuming heavy amount of electricity without using power meters," Al-Abdali noted.

The western and southern parts of the country were plunged into total darkness yesterday, for several hours, before the company managed to gradually restarted the stations.