The caretaker Minister of Energy and Water, Walid Fayad, announced on Friday “an increase in electricity production from mid-June.” He pointed out that the two power plants in operation, Deir Ammar and Zahrani, currently produce the equivalent of around 450 megawatts, which will rise to around 600 megawatts by mid-June.
Unfortunately, this increase in production will not be accompanied by the supply of additional hours of electricity.
Fayad explained this increase in production in the light of higher summer consumption and electricity requirements, due to the use of air conditioners. “We won’t be able to give more because needs are greater than they were in the spring. This increase in production will enable us to maintain the current supply system,” he said.
However, he assured us that he was also looking to buy more fuel, as the public supplier had the necessary funds to increase supplies.
His comments came at the end of a meeting on Friday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, World Bank (WB) Regional Director for the Middle East Jean-Christophe Carret, and EDL Managing Director Kamal Hayek. During the meeting, the progress of the loan program on which the WB is working for the energy sector, and in particular renewable energies, was presented. “We also discussed the requirements needed as well as the audit, legal issues, mechanism, and cost set up by EDL in cooperation with the World Bank,” he said.
Fayad described the program as promising, since it involves around $250 million of investment by the World Bank in the renewable energy sector and in the consolidation of EDL.
He also indicated that he had been informed by Mikati of his receipt of the letter he had sent concerning the 100-megawatt renewable energy plant that the consortium of Total Energy and Qatar Energy proposes to build in Lebanon.
Fayad revealed that in his letter, he proposed a legal solution that would speed up the implementation of this project so that the two companies could invest in the construction of the plant. Caretaker Prime Minister Mikati sent a message to this effect to the two companies. “We hope they will react positively,” concluded Fayad.
