Minister of Energy and Water Walid Fayad during his speech at the 15th session of the Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity held in Cairo on Dec. 1-2. Screenshot taken from a video posted on the Minister's X account
Caretaker Energy and Water Minister, Walid Fayyad, called on Arab countries to contribute to financing the rehabilitation and repair of Lebanon's electricity sector, which was already on its last legs before the Hezbollah-Israel war destroyed part of the country's distribution network.
Speaking at the 15th session of the Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity, held in Cairo on Dec. 1 and 2, Fayyad also urged the Council and the Arab League to “work” toward the lifting of Western sanctions against Syria, which could enable Lebanon to import electricity from Jordan or gas from Egypt. This request was unanimously approved, according to a press release issued Monday evening by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
“Today, Lebanon needs you more than ever, as it emerges from a devastating war waged by the Israeli enemy and which has spared no civilians, no aid workers, no homes and no infrastructure in the water and electricity sectors," the minister told the Council, recalling that the two-month war killed 4,000 people, including four Électricité du Liban (EDL) employees.
He also estimated the cost of destruction in the electricity sector at around $200 million: $75 million for the transmission network (high/medium voltage) and $125 million for the distribution network (medium/low voltage), adding that revenue loss amounted to approximately $135 million due to the suspension of collection operations.
According to the press release relaying the contents of the meeting, the Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity agreed to “ask its member states and Arab and international financing institutions and funds to consider... allocating financial resources” for the repair of the damaged electricity infrastructure in affected areas and for the deployment of photovoltaic installations, including those designed to power water supply networks.
The Council also pledged to "work toward the lifting of the sanctions” which prevent the import of fuel from Jordan and gas from Egypt to power EDL's grid and power plants.
These solutions correspond to those proposed in an American emergency plan announced in 2021. However, this plan was shelved after several decisive steps had been taken, including agreements between Beirut, Cairo and Damascus.
Change in consumer habits
As a reminder, this project was announced shortly after Iran, which backs Hezbollah, offered to supply free fuel to crisis-hit Lebanon. This offer came at a time when the shortage of public and private electricity was at its worst. At the time, Washington had assured that its proposal had not been formulated to counterbalance the more modest but concrete Iranian initiative.
Last August, Fayyad had declared that the U.S. sanctions regime introduced by the Caesar Act was partly responsible for the persistent difficulties of EDL, which had just experienced another episode of near-total blackout. He also said that political quarrels contributed to these difficulties.
During his speech, the minister mentioned that the adjustment of EDL's rates to market prices in late 2022 had allowed the Lebanese Treasury to save “$4 billion a year” before the war.
In the early 1990s, the state started subsidizing the public operator's fuel purchases. However, when the crisis erupted in 2019, it was compelled to stop doing so.
The minister also explained that the adjustment of EDL’s rates had rebalanced its books and encouraged citizens to reduce their consumption by “30 percent.”
Finally, Fayyad hailed the increase in the share of renewable energies in Lebanon, which is largely due to the multiplication of individual and collective solar installations since the onset of the crisis. He reported “an increase of 1,200 percent in less than two years,” with Lebanon’s solar energy penetration rate reaching 25 percent, and set a target to raise this rate to 40 percent by 2030.
