Electricity consumption
grows by seven percent

Consumption doubles in a ten year period

The Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) estimates demand for electricity to rise to 31,000 gigawatt hours in 2020.

Sorina Mortada, Technical Consultant to the LCEC, said: “We took 2010 as a baseline and found that energy consumption grows by seven percent on a yearly basis.” Consumption was calculated over the period of 2005-2015, resulting in an average growth of seven percent per year.

Electricity consumption in 2010 was 16,000 GwH while production is estimated at 11,500 GwH, according to Electricité du Liban.

To cope with rising demand, the LCEC put in place a five-year strategy for renewable energy. It includes the restoration of hydropower plants, biomass fuel generation, and geothermal power. As for thermal power plants, Parliament recently enacted two loan agreements for the restoration of Zouk and Jiyeh power plants. The construction of a new power plant in Jiyeh was recently completed. A new thermal plant in Zouk will follow within a few months. The ministry’s policies will focus on reducing transmission losses and completing the 220 kV loop in Mansourieh. They also include restoring the remaining power plants. These new arrangements will add at least 10,000 GwH to the national power grid, according to the ministry’s strategy.

Mortada said that the LCEC will send the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2016-2020 to the Ministry of Energy and Water this month and later to the Council of Ministers for approval.

The new strategy takes into account the need to reduce power consumption by five percent in the next five years, according to the newly ratified energy efficiency law. “This can be done by focusing more on photovoltaic farms and less on households,” she said.

The strategy notes nine initiatives for buildings, two initiatives for industry, one initiative for agriculture, and two initiatives for the Government. Among the main requirements are establishing facilities to study the thermal properties of installing double walls in buildings, changing the construction code, and mandating energy audits in factories.

Pierre Khoury, Director of the LCEC, said: “We expect to exceed our goal to generate 12 percent of total power from renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.” The market has so far achieved only one percent power generation. The new strategy is expected to increase the share of clean energy projects within the next five years.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh expects that the value of environmental loans will reach $600 million in the next two years. “There is interest from the public about environmental issues, as evidenced by the success of the projects of water heaters and solar energy, and Lebanon has become one of the top ten countries in the world in the use of this medium. We have counted about 20,000 loans in this area,” he said.