The headquarters of EDL in Mar Mikhaël, near the port of Beirut on March 1, 2025. (Credit: Archive photo Philippe Hage Boutros)
After six years of waiting, including two unsuccessful attempts, the public utility Electricité du Liban (EDL) has finally managed to find a candidate to renovate its headquarters, which was destroyed by the Beirut port explosion on Aug. 4, 2020.
According to the announcement published on the Public Procurement Authority's website, the worksite was awarded, on July 20, to “the consortium formed by International Consolidated Contractors SAL and METAG İnşaat Ticaret Anonim Şirketi [Metag Holding,]” which submitted a bid of nearly $14 million, excluding VAT, a price in line with the estimate that has been circulating in recent years regarding the project's cost.
The two companies assert on their respective websites that they have completed civil engineering, building, water and sanitation network projects, as well as flood protection structures, notably in Africa and the Gulf countries. Their bid was one of six submitted.
Several procedures have been initiated since 2024 to reach the awarding of this contract. A year ago, the public prosecutor at the Court of Audit, Fawzi Khamis, had concluded, following an investigation conducted in close collaboration with the Public Procurement Authority, that the commission formed by EDL to review bids had excluded candidates from one of the procedures for “insubstantial reasons.” Neither EDL nor the Court of Audit disclosed the names of the candidates in contention during the process.
Contacted, EDL management explained in a written response to L'Orient-Le Jour that another call for tenders had been issued for the same site, with July 30 as the deadline for submission, concerning the supervision of the works by the project manager, to be overseen by a consultant assisting EDL.
EDL management added that the contract with the Lebanese-Turkish consortium would be signed in the second half of August and that this signature would mark the start of the site, which must be completed within a period of 18 months.
The outcome of this tender has already prompted a reaction from Jessica Obeid, an energy engineer and energy policy consultant, who has notably worked for UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and the World Bank (WB) in Lebanon. She criticized EDL for mobilizing $14 million for the rehabilitation of its headquarters at a time when the supplier, whose revenues have declined due to the destruction by Israel of a large number of homes in south Lebanon, southern Beirut and the Bekaa, is finding it increasingly difficult to finance its fuel purchases, which have become more expensive due to rising oil prices in the context of the conflict between Iran and the United States.
"With $14 million, we could supply electricity to 30 cities in Lebanon. They would benefit from cheaper electricity, and it would reduce the load on the network!" Jessica Obeid wrote on X.
Considered by many architects as an enduring masterpiece of modernism in Lebanon and designed to withstand powerful earthquakes, the EDL headquarters, built facing the Port of Beirut, was blown apart by the massive explosion that wounded the Lebanese capital. The building also housed the national control center for the distribution network, which was also destroyed and whose replacement is expected to be financed by the latest loan to the sector from the World Bank.
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