Power vessels plan still on

Cabinet agrees to lease ships, build power plants

The Cabinet agreed on Wednesday (March 28) to lease power-generating barges to produce 270 Megawatts for a maximum of three years (two years renewable for one year). It also decided to build power plants with a production capacity of 1,500 Megawatts.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati had been against leasing power-generating barges and proposed building a permanent power plant instead. He argued that renting the ships will cost the treasury a large amount of money.

Mikati said that the cabinet will negotiate with the two companies that won the tenders to lower the cost of the leasing. Turkish firm, ‘Karadeniz’, and US-based firm ‘Waller Marine’ have offered to generate 180 MWs of electricity each at a cost of around $429 million over five years (for each). Both offers exclude the expenses of the fuel oil which will be paid by the government.

“If we fail to reach an agreement we will re-launch tenders,” Mikati said. He also said that the rehabilitation of the Jieh and Zouk power plants might be postponed till the end of the summer. The Council for Development and Reconstruction already launched the bid for the rehabilitation of the two power plants on March 19.