Bassil Stresses All Sides Emerged Victorious in Cabinet’s Electricity Decision
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil said Thursday he agreed with Premier Najib Miqati that no party emerged as a victor or vanquished during a cabinet session that saw the approval of power-generating vessels and the construction of electricity plants.
The government averted a crisis during its session at Baabda Palace on Wednesday after it approved the leasing of the ships for a maximum of three years to produce 270 megawatts and the construction of 1,500-megawatt power plants.
Miqati and Bassil had been at loggerheads on how to solve the country’s lingering electricity crisis. The premier was opposing the minister’s proposal to lease the vessels and was instead suggesting the construction of plants.
But a last-minute deal between the two sides led to the approval of the two proposals with concessions made by the two sides.
Bassil told As Safir daily on Friday that his power-generating vessels’ proposal had emerged victorious given that “it is part of the whole.”
He said that Miqati also scored a victory in addition to the ministerial committee that was tasked with studying the leasing of the ships after the discussions at the cabinet stressed the need for the vessels, which do not contradict with the construction of plants as the premier has proposed.
“Some people triggered a delusional campaign that had no excuse,” Bassil said.
12 years
Finally something happened. Hope the execution goes well.
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metel el wled el zghar! inno ma 7ada farad kelemto 3a 7ada... ya 3ayb el shoum!
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@mowaten
i hope they play it smart and repair/renew jounieh and jiyeh one by one...not together!! or mazbout fetna bel hayt :D
also, saying no one is victorious is STUPID and SELFISH... typical of our worthless politicians.. always wanting to win something.. LEBANON and the LEBANESE PEOPLE IS VICTORIOUS if this plays out well, because it is our right to have 24/7 electricity, and WE should be judging them all!!!!
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they will start with jyieh or zouk and then pass to the other one
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Basil means that he got his share and Miqaty got his share of the loot! The lebanese can never be victorious with this class of corrupt politicians....
Watch in 3 years how the private generators will still be running and the electricity producing ships will become a permanent fixture on the Lebanese coast....
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it is really hard not be pessimistic because this has been going on since 1990's. Aside from that.... it is dumb plan, they just announced fuel shortage due to the oil sector strike and a price hike in gasoline. The math is simple, you build another power plant cause demand for crude oil increase causing supply to go down thus electrical bill goes up and price for gasoline goes up. I wish I really wish I am wrong. http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/34978-fuel-crisis-emerges-as-gas-stations-warn-gasoline-supply-ends-in-2-days
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Why is electricity issue in Lebanon about the 'winning' and 'losing' of parties.
Isn't the electricity problem about the people? People who want to live a decent life?
When will it ever become about the people and not the parties?
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This will not happen, no where in your mind, because before you will turn it on Israel will make another war on Hezboshaitan for 1 billion bid out of 9.4 billion law suit against the party, investors will flow in as well air crafts and war horns.
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This is all a big farce, no one is victorious. They have looked at this from 1 side without assessing consumer activism, and job creation.
This 1$ billion could be spent wisely by investing in incentives to consumers to replace housing lamps to LED, replacing all street lights to solar LED, rehabilitating existing power plants, investing in new energy alternatives for the future (solar, wind, water), and decentralizing power supply whilst maintaining strict controls.
Let's not forget that they should enforce all consumers to pay.
You want electricity quickly? It start with us not those puppets.
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well said Jack. Hydro power and Solar Panels and the fixing of current plants.
If they fix the wires in the streets alone they will save 30% of the power that is waisted! (but they never talk about that!)
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LED will not sputter out in 2 years. The purpose is to decrease consumer intake that will help bring down power usage across the country.
Solar powered LED street lights will keep ALL our streets lit at night without using any power from any power grid.
Judging from a country that is in debt, we need to first exercise our options on a budget. not go spend $1 billion like idiots thinking this will benefit us. The only people this benefits are the recipients of that money.. i.e. non Lebanese investors.
and lastly, why invest in something that will die in the next 10 years.. fuel is gradually be replaced by something else, be it natural gas, solar batteries, etc.
The government should involve the citizen instead of burdening them with problems of the future.
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most of the powerplants can work both on fuel or Gaz, so when we become a gaz producing country we'll be self sustaining for decades
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ok - so we have a failed governmenet trying to play politics and scoring points with basic needs of the lebanese. This is a sector that should have been privatized long ago and the government should have been the watchdog to ensure that all lebanese are getting fair prices and protected over the long run. But what private company would want to make such an investment in a volatile country like ours where you are the at the mercy of the iranian and syrian puppets and the zionist airforce which can destory the whole infrastructure be laeylee ma feeha daw amar should hizballah tries to do anything stupid at the orders of the iranian or the baa3shit regimes??
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Seems our politicians didnt hear about green energy. Solar systems and Wind electric generators. Lebanon is the perfect country for these things, but no sign of any attention for the issue.
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100% in fact if you go to the ministry of energy website you'll notice that they are doing (with the help of the EU) a Wind atlas describing where and how should the windmills should be placed, it's in fact the next project along with Hydraulic power.
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And how is the government planning to finance all this? People in lebanon do not pay their bills and the EDL loses money every year.
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finally but at the cost of soo much million more than the exact cost + a big commission to bassil relative who did the deal. so what a way to spend Government money. instead of building plant, no we have to make bassil happy and have him and his uncle steak Lebanese money.what a shame.this shows how corrupt and greedy the 3ounis are and how even worst are the whole 8th of march who always accuse the 14th of the same crime they have just did. after all,they are crooks and it is the Lebanese people fault for allowing them to do so.
Well at least something is going to happen.
lets see now:
1 Ship = 270 MW per year +
1 Plant = 500 MW per year
= 770 MW per year.
Is that enough for lebanon to stop its blackouts and power cuts ?
and, out of curiosity, how much power does the Juniehh plant make ? and how much does the one thats near the Giyeh make ? - just trying to compare sizes with the new one they want to build ...?