The New Government and Increasing the Electricity Supply

In the wake of the Reform and Rescue government's approval of its ministerial statement, the eyes of the Lebanese are turning to the electric power and oil and gas exploration sectors, as the government has pledged to increase the hours of electricity supply, in addition to resuming work on oil and gas exploration. This is especially significant given that the electricity sector was one of the main causes of the financial and economic crisis from which Lebanon continues to suffer, while the bet placed by the Lebanese that oil and gas extraction would curb fuel oil imports and that their revenues would help pay off the public debt, or the greater part of it, has failed.

Attempts to develop the electric power sector have faced obstruction and paralysis ever since reconstruction projects were launched after the war came to an end in the early 1990s. Political tug-of-war among the ruling forces, combined with obstruction, has turned the electric power sector from a strategic utility, given the operating power it provides to all economic sectors and its role as a source of funding for the state treasury, into an arena for settling political scores and sterile polemics among its parties.

Attempts to generate electric power from wind movement have in turn faced obstacles as a result of foot-dragging in amending Law 462/2002, after which it became impossible to obtain foreign financing because of the financial and economic crisis. Notably, this amendment ended the monopoly of Electricité du Liban over electricity generation and granted the Council of Ministers the right to issue licenses on a temporary basis for two years, which went to "Sustainable Akkar," "Lebanon Wind Power," and "Hawa Akkar," with a combined capacity of 200 megawatts, pursuant to Decision No. 43 dated 2 November 2017.

Keeping the price of a kilowatt-hour below its true cost for decades left Electricité du Liban in need of permanent funding from the public treasury to operate and maintain its plants, hindering plans to develop the utility and driving up the public debt. The low price also contributed to a lack of interest among the Lebanese in shifting to renewable energy, while the state took no initiative to encourage a transition to renewable energy, despite its advantages in terms of sustainability and reasonable cost.

The caretaker government's approval in March 2020 of the National Plan for the Sustainable Recovery of the Electricity Sector in Lebanon came to address the faltering generation and distribution of electricity by Electricité du Liban after it ceased operations in September 2021. For all its importance, the latest electricity plan was confined to addressing the generation and distribution of electricity produced by Electricité du Liban's thermal plants, to the exclusion of other sources that could be integrated with one another to achieve a greater number of supply hours.

Despite the increase in the hours of electric power supply provided by Electricité du Liban, the suffering of the Lebanese continues as a result of irregular supply and the failure to announce its schedules, preventing citizens from making optimal use of supply hours. Compounding the suffering of the Lebanese are the high cost of Electricité du Liban bills and delays in issuing them, leaving people easy prey to the greed of generator owners and their exorbitant, painful bills.

Amid the financial crisis in which Lebanon is floundering and the difficulty of securing suitable sources of financing to invest in the energy sector, it is essential to activate the public-private partnership law and work to encourage investments in renewable and clean energy. Any new plan must rest on national resources, particularly river and sea water, wind movement, sunlight, and solid waste treatment, in addition to the hydroelectric and thermal plants currently in operation and even private generators.

There is no doubt that resolving the electric power crisis begins with establishing good governance and applying the principle of accountability, since officials' adherence to legal provisions and commitment to enforcing them are a prerequisite for the success of any future plan. This is particularly true now that the signs of achieving security and political stability have come together with the formation of the Reform and Rescue government, paving the way to attract the investments indispensable for reviving the national economy as a whole, and not electricity alone. As for the steps that must be taken to resolve the electricity crisis, they can be summarized as follows:

- Preventing encroachments on transmission and distribution lines and electricity theft, and imposing the harshest penalties on their perpetrators. - Accelerating the issuance of Electricité du Liban bills, allowing consumers to monitor and rationalize their consumption. - Working to operate the Arman and Zahrani plants on natural gas instead of fuel oil, helping lower production costs and reduce environmental damage. - Rehabilitating hydroelectric plants, working to develop them, and building new hydroelectric plants using modern technologies that do not require high water pressure. - Incentivizing the establishment of solar power stations to generate electricity through municipalities and the local community. - Reviewing the price per kilowatt generated from solar energy that Electricité du Liban purchases from individual producers to incentivize them to generate larger capacities of electricity. - Providing financial guarantees and possible facilities for wind energy projects in a way that helps diversify electricity sources and sustain supply. - Treating waste landfills to harness methane gas emissions in generating electricity, along the lines of the Naameh landfill, to curb the environmental hazards of these landfills and prevent their explosion. - Establishing solid waste treatment plants through which electric power is generated and waste is disposed of at the same time.

Moving forward, hopes are high for the new era and the incoming government to revitalize public services, including ensuring a sustainable supply of electric power. These services are a right owed to citizens by their state, and it is the duty of everyone who assumes public office to do their utmost to provide them in the best possible manner, at the lowest cost, and at the appropriate time.

Those in charge of public affairs must work earnestly to restore public administrations and institutions to active service, and muster the resolve to modernize and develop them to keep pace with the spirit and demands of the age before it is too late and when regret will be of no avail.

Translated from Arabic with AI. Read it in Arabic