The Head of the Crisis Committee at the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) in Sirte Fathi Gargoum has confirmed that the operation procedures started at the first turbine of the Khalij steam power station in the city.

He said on Tuesday that the operation was done earlier today and will go on for three days to a week later to make sure there would be no technical failures.

Gargoum added that they had finished the maintenance work at cable 400 kilovolts that connects power generator station to the first turbine as it was not operating since April and had been repaired by a joint Libyan and Italian technicians' team.

"The actual operation of the first turbine will be next week as it will also join the general power grid of the GECOL with 180 megawatts production capacity at first stage, and then 350 megawatts in later stages." He explained.

GECOL opened last week Ubari steam power plant as it started operating the fourth turbine to pave the way for it to join the general power grid this week with a capacity of 160 megawatts, besides gradual operation for other turbines so at the end the whole station will join the GECOL power network with 640 megawatts by the beginning of 2018.