Rayya El Hassan, Minister of Finance said that her Ministry has allocated $2 billion for the Ministry of Power and Water in the 2010 draft budget to support Electricite Du Liban and build a new power plant this year.

Gebran Bassil, Minister of Energy and Water said that the plan to reform the power sector and the national power company Electricite Du Liban should be commenced before the summer season. “We will face a real power shortage in summer when demand for electricity peaks if any delay happens on implementing the plans,” he said.

Bassil said that the plan prepared by his Ministry mainly consists of increasing spending allocated to investments in the power sector, modernizing transmission networks, and raising tariffs.

Bassil said that the Ministry plans to buy new amounts of gas to increase power supply and fully operate power plants. “We can wheel this gas from countries like Turkey, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Qatar, and former Soviet Union States,” he said.

Bassil said that the government is also considering options such as raising the tariff taking into account “low and middle income people.” he said that the Ministry also plans to improve transmission networks “so we are able to transmit our needs of 1,500 megawatts of electricity.”

Bassil and El Hassan were speaking at a workshop on the power sector organized in the Parliament headquarters.