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.
Italy's Enelpower was announced as the preferred bidder in 2001 on the 640-megawatt (MW) Western Mountain Power Project, but withdrew from the project in 2003 after failing to reach a final deal. Other Libyan power projects include an 800-MW power plant in Zuwara on the west coast, a 1,400-MW power plant to be located on the coast between Benghazi and Tripoli, and the 1,400-MW "Gulfsteam" combined power and desalination complex in Sirte. In February 2002, Russia's Tekhnopromexport signed a $600 million deal with Libya to build the 650-MW Western Tripoli power plant. An expansion and upgrading project at the 450-MW Benghazi North power plant would double the plant's capacity and convert it to combined cycle. Finally, in August 2003, South Korea's Hyundai signed a $280 million deal to expand the Az Zawiya power plant, west of Tripoli, with a 330-MW gas turbine unit. As of early 2005, however, most of these projects were moving very slowly, if at all, due to a lack of liquidity by GECOL as well as difficult negotiations.
Aside from building new generation capacity, GECOL also has a $1 billion program to upgrade and expand the country's power transmission grid. In October 2003, Spain's Abengoa and Cobra signed deals worth a combined $339 million with GECOL in this area. Plans for a new 400-kilovolt (kV) grid are in the works, involving installation of 2,800 miles of new power lines. Currently, Libya's power grid consists of around 7,500 miles of 220-kV lines, 13,000 miles of 66-kV and 30kV lines, and 20,000 miles of 11 kV lines. As of early 2005, work on the power grid was generally far behind schedule. On a positive note, in November 2004, Germany's Siemens was awarded a $225 million contract to supply five network district control centers which are aimed at helping avoid blackouts in Az Zawiya, Benghazi, Sirte, Tripoli, and Tobruk. Work is to be completed by early 2005.
