| 03 Jul 2009 |
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Lebanon again plagued by power rationing amid tourist influx
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03 July 2009
BEIRUT: Lebanon is once again experiencing severe electricity rationing this summer as thousands of Lebanese and Arab visitors flock to the country, increasing strain on power stations that meet less than 60 percent of the country's electricity needs. Many areas in the country are already receiving less than 14 hours of electricity each day, a supply that can decrease with over a million tourists expected to come to Lebanon in the coming three months.
Most Lebanese outside Beirut resort to private generators during power cuts.
And to compound matters further, many Lebanese fear the rates of monthly subscriptions to private generators will soar due to the increase in the prices of gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene.
"What do you expect? Our power stations have a capacity of 1,500 MW while the actual need is 2,300 MW at least," caretaker Energy Minister Alan Tabourian told The Daily Star on Thursday.
He added that the causes for the power shortages have become common knowledge.
The minister said that higher economic growth would also an increase in energy consumption.
"If we take the projections of 4-6 percent growth in 2009 then the pressure on our power stations will rise," he added.
Tabourian believes power consumption will rise by 120 MW at least this summer.
"We are going into an abyss. Our government has not taken any actions to improve electricity production. We need more power stations but none of this has happened," he said.
"He [Siniora] hid my plan in his drawer and refused to discuss it in Cabinet, I warned the ministers that the electricity problems will get worse if we fail to take action but no one listened," Tabourian said.
He added that some of the Lebanese papers published the entire plan even before it was discussed in Cabinet.
"What more can I do? I gave the Cabinet the plan but it was not even discussed," he said.
All the successive governments have tried in vain to tackle the chronic power problems.
Proposals have ranged from the privatization of power production and distribution to or building new electricity plants.
However, none of these suggestions materialized.
Experts argue that the sharp political differences between rival politicians were among the main reasons behind the near collapse of the electricity sector.
Even Siniora admitted Leba?non needed to invest at least $1 billion to produce new plants to meet the growing consumption.
The government allocates over $1 billion each year to subsidize the cost of fuel oil and kerosene purchasing in order to operate the aging stations.
There is a general consensus that Lebanon must find cheaper sourced of energy to cut the high cost of fuel oil.
Among the ideas raised was a switch to natural gas because it is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
Tabourian said switching to gas will save the energy bill only but not increase production.
© Copyright The Daily Star 2009.
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