Background
Libya currently has electric power production capacity of about 4.6-4.7 gigawatts (GW), with peak load of around 3.3 GW. Most of Libya's existing power stations are oil-fired, though several have been converted to natural gas. Libya's power demand is growing rapidly (around 6%-8% annually), and is expected to reach 5.8 GW in 2010 and 8 GW in 2020. During the summer of 2004, Libya was hit by widespread blackouts as power plants could not keep up with demand. To prevent such blackouts in the future and to meet surging power consumption, Libya's state-owned General Electricity Company (GECOL) has plans to spend $3.5 billion through 2010 building eight new combined cycle and steam cycle power plants. As of late 2004, however, construction had started at only one of the new plants, in part due to the fact that GECOL has serious financing issues due in part to low, subsidized electricity prices (around 0.02 Libyan Dinars per kilowatthour) and also to the fact that only 40% of Libyans pay their power bills.
Sources: MBendi
www.mbendi.co.za