Noga chairman Tal Baxes said Israel’s power system remained stable through the war with Iran and years of conflict, despite missile fire at critical energy infrastructure. He said there were only relatively minor hits and that, in the end, electricity kept flowing. “Citizens of Israel can sleep peacefully,” he said, arguing that the energy-security test had been passed.
Baxes described the first hours of the Iran fighting as especially serious. Three gas platforms were shut down immediately when the war began, and two of them, Karish and Leviathan, had already been taken offline shortly beforehand so their systems would be empty of gas in case of a strike. Tamar was also shut for about 30 hours out of fear it could be hit, leaving the country without gas until it resumed operations. During that period, Israel switched to diesel and coal generation without users noticing outages or even momentary flickers, he said.
He said Noga has increased fuel inventories since October 7 to prepare for a worst case scenario involving major damage to generation assets and possible regional disruptions such as the closure of the Hormuz and Bab el Mandeb straits. He called the Iran campaign “a war of energy,” noting that Iranian attacks targeted power plants in the Negev and north, along with refineries and other sensitive energy facilities. Asked about the risk of a blackout, he said it is an extreme scenario but one for which the company is prepared.
Baxes said Noga is now preparing to raise debt of NIS 1.5 billion to NIS 2 billion to finance emergency fuel purchases, following approvals through the Finance Ministry, Accountant General, Companies Authority, Electricity Authority and other bodies. He said the plan is supported and should advance within weeks, allowing Noga to take over emergency fuel procurement, storage and maintenance from Israel Electric Corporation under the electricity reform.
He added that Noga, which has suffered management instability and was criticized by a state companies audit, is also close to appointing a permanent CEO, with eight finalists and a target of about a month to six weeks. Looking ahead, Noga estimates Israeli electricity demand will double by 2050 to 35,855 megawatts, while data-center requests already total about 8,000 megawatts. The company expects renewables to rise from 17 percent today to 35 percent by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050, while also studying small nuclear reactors in Japan.
