Electricity Crisis Lands on Cabinet Agenda after Severe Power Cuts

The cabinet is set to tackle the electricity crisis in Lebanon next Wednesday after several weeks of frequent power cuts across the country caused road closures by angry residents.

An Nahar newspaper reported Sunday that the issue of electricity shortage is on the 74-item agenda of the cabinet that will most likely witness a heated session over Energy Minister Jebran Bassil’s scheduled briefing of the findings of a technical committee tasked with studying the leasing of power-generating vessels.

According to the daily, the committee suggests the government’s approval of a 36-month contract between the energy ministry and a Turkish company to provide Lebanon with two ships to generate 270 megawatts of electricity.

They are aimed at compensating the electricity shortage that would be caused by the rehabilitation of the Jiyyeh and Zouk power plants and allowing the government to build one or two new plants to resolve Lebanon’s lingering electricity crisis.

The country has long suffered from electricity outages because of shortages at its power plants whose maximum capacity is less than 1,500 megawatts but the country’s actual need exceeds 2,300 megawatts.

A total blackout last Monday caused protests as residents blocked streets in various regions across the country with burning tires.