Residences are highest
consumers of electricity

Cooling and lighting are Watt guzzlers

The residential sector represents 30 percent of total electricity consumption, according to The First Energy Indicators Report released by the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC).

The residential building sector is followed by the commercial sector, which accounts for 27 percent of demand, then by the industrial sector (19 percent), and health and education (16 percent).

Sorina Mortada, author of the report and LCEC consultant, said: “There has been a large increase in the number of residential units, whereas a lot of industries have shut down or rely on private generators.” These changes might be attributed to a rise in the number of Syrian refugees.

Demand for electricity within the residential sector has increased from 2009 by 87 percent to 5,751 GigaWatt hours (GWh) in 2014.

Industries such as the manufacturing of cement are off the public grid completely. Wineries rely solely on private generators during three months of the year. “Any change in the electric current would affect production. Therefore, they opt to use private generators either completely, or partially throughout the year,” Mortada said.

Cooling and dehumidification combined constitute 40 percent of the total electricity demand from households. This is followed by lighting, which accounted for 31 percent of total demand.