Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — A plan by state provider Électricité du Liban (EDL) to increase daily power production has seen "relatively low" success, caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad said Thursday.
At a press conference in Beirut, Fayyad said "there is a desire" by EDL to increase electricity coverage in Lebanon to eight hours a day, but "limitation of funding from Banque du Liban led to that supply staying at four to five hours."
He added he hopes that recently increased monthly electricity bills for subscribers would allow EDL to extend those hours.
"It's true that there is a delay, but the prospects that we have seen since the implementation of the emergency response last February indicate that things are going in the right direction," Fayyad said.
An administrative source at EDL told L'Orient-Le Jour last month that more than 2,000 households throughout the country have been unsubscribing from the public network each day.
In his press conference Thursday, Fayyad downplayed this estimate and said it is only a few hundred households have unsubscribed overall.
The emergency plan to fund more electricity was implemented in February after Banque du Liban (BDL) financed shipments of fuel.
The plan includes key performance indicators intended to limit violations and bill collections. Depending on the proper implementation of this plan, EDL can move on to subsequent production phases.
Lebanon has received very little electricity from EDL since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019. The country is heavily reliant on expensive private generators and, in more recent years, solar panel systems.
