Egypt to supply Lebanon with power to ease power shortages

Layla Abadi
For Al-Shorfa.com
2008-09-26

A worker checks a switch linked to a generator that distributes electricity to residents in Beirut on June 11, 2008. More than 15 years after the civil war (1975-1990), Lebanese citizens are still suffering from severe shortages of power supply and worry that the cuts become even more frequent. Joseph Barrak/AFP/Getty Images

Many Lebanese organise their daily lives around electricity outages. In Beirut, power often disappears for three hours a day, while many other parts of the country face blackouts that extend for more than 12 hours.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora announced recently that Egypt will supply Lebanon with electricity and gas to meet growing consumption and ease shortages.

Despite several systemic ills—such as poor bill collection, theft and corruption—insufficient power production remains the most significant cause of the outages. Current production in Lebanon is about 1500 megawatts (MW), while the country needs approximately 2300 MW.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (C) and Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif (L) talk to Lebanese Premier Fuad Siniora at the Burg al-Arab airport outside the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, 220 kms north of Cairo, on August 16, 2008. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora announced recently that Egypt will supply Lebanon with electricity and gas to meet growing consumption and ease shortages. Sameh Sherif/AFP/Getty Images

Leaders in both nations have worked closely to negotiate a deal that would have Egypt supply Lebanon with electricity and gas across a regional grid and pipeline passing through Jordan and Syria.

"We are coordinating our efforts with [Egyptian] Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and the relevant ministers in Egypt in order to enable Egyptian electricity and gas to reach Lebanon as soon as possible," Prime Minister Siniora told reporters at a joint news conference with Nazif in Egypt’s northern city of Alexandria.

At recent talks in Cairo, Egypt expressed intentions to supply Lebanon with between 150 MW and 450 MW of electricity. Egypt is expected to supply up to 600 MW of electricity to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Electricity has long been a significant concern for the Lebanese government. The country allocates the third largest portion of its budget, after debt servicing and salaries, to power supply.

The energy shortages have a deep impact on Lebanon’s flagging economy. The country’s persistent and prolonged electricity supply interruptions result in significant losses in economic production and related commercial and industrial activities.

In addition to supplying Lebanon with electricity, the plan will have Egypt supply gas to reduce the nation's energy bill by $300 million a year.

"Egypt will ship 30 million cubic feet of gas in the first quarter of 2009," Lebanon’s Energy and Water Minister Alan Tabourian told the Lebanon Daily Star.

Natural gas is a cleaner source of energy than fuel oil and produces cheaper electricity. Lebanon’s aging power stations largely run on fuel oil, reducing the nation’s ability to efficiently meet its energy needs.

In 1996, then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri invested $1.4 billion to build two gas powered stations and modernize the country’s existing plants. But gas supplies were never secured and the state-owned utility Electricite du Liban (EDL) was forced to operate the new facilities on less efficient oil fuels.

Since the year 2000, electricity demand in Lebanon has been growing at an annual average rate of about 5 percent per year.

"If we get electricity from Egypt and Jordan then this will give us between two and three years' grace period to build more power plants to meet the local demand," Tabourian told the Lebanon Daily Star.

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