1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Prior to the onset of the Syrian crisis, Lebanon was, and still is, suffering from serious and persistent issues in its energy sector. The limited generation capacities and the increasing demand impede Électricité du Liban (EDL), the national utility, from meeting the country’s electricity demand. The gap between EDL’s electricity production and total electricity consumption increases every year. Ageing power plants in Lebanon operate below their rated capacity. This results in power outages of at least three hours per day in Beirut and up to twelve hours outside of Beirut. EDL generates about 61% of the electricity consumption. Efforts have been made to improve the situation through the rehabilitation of some generation plants and through rented generation barges that increased the generation capacity by about 440 MW. However, power outages remained the same across the country because additional capacities are equated by an almost similar demand by the displaced Syrians.
The Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and with funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, initiated a project to study the additional power consumption as a result of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon. This report quantifies the power consumption of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon, assesses their direct and indirect impact on the electricity sector in Lebanon, and recommends interventions that are in line with the government’s Policy Paper, Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) and Lebanon’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). The data produced in this report was also used to prepare the Energy Sector of the LCRP 2017 – 2020.
The power consumption of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon is calculated using two pathways.
The first is based on the UNHCR figures as of June 30, 2016, which amounts to 1,032,589 registered persons. The second is based on Directorate General of General Security (DGGS) figures which estimate the official number of displaced Syrians in Lebanon at 1,500,000 persons. The recommendations and interventions presented in this report have been identified based on data made available by governmental authorities such as MoEW and EDL, as well as data gathered from an official survey of the displaced Syrians communities across all regions in Lebanon, and best practices in other countries with similar profiles. The recommendations and interventions were based on discussions with key representatives and were subsequently classified into short-, medium-, and long-term priorities.
Electricity demand of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon should be looked at primarily as a humanitarian need that affects the well-being of the individuals and the proper operation of other humanitarian sectors, in addition to its impact on the overall economy and electricity sectors.
Similar to the Lebanese, most displaced Syrians in Lebanon, whether living in Non Informal Settlements (Non IS) or in Informal Settlements (IS), are not obtaining the minimum required electricity to operate basic household appliances due to insufficient generation capacities and overloaded transmission and distribution networks.
The assessment calculates that the additional direct and indirect power generation needed to cater for the demand of the displaced Syrian amounts to approximately 486 MW. This impact has major implications on the EDL network, and action has to be taken to alleviate its impact.
Rehabilitation of the ageing power plants and construction of new power plants, underway by MoEW, are not sufficient nor quick enough to cover the rapidly increasing electricity demand. In 2010, Lebanon put forward a target for the energy sector by committing to 12% renewable energy use by 2020 (Climate Change, 2016), but Lebanon is still far from meeting this target. Therefore, recommendations and priorities are given to renewable energy to increase generated capacity and to participate in achieving ensure that 12% of total supply comes from renewable energy sources.
The short-term priority includes encouraging the use of energy saving bulbs and solar water heaters in the residential sector to reduce power demand on EDL’s network.
The medium-term priorities comprise interventions that would require a period of at least five years to complete. Decentralized solutions such as Distributed Generation Resources (DER), or Distributed Energy, is recommended for areas of medium power demand (up to 10 MW) such as Hermel, Rachaya, and West Bekaa. Street lighting retrofit is another medium-term recommendation; high (or low) pressure sodium lamps (SHP) can be changed for LED fixtures, with dimming of lighting in times of low night traffic.
Other recommendations and interventions vary from using solar kits with a small rated capacity (up to 2.5 KW) in areas where households are considered “vulnerable” or where the EDL grid does not exist, to centralized solutions such as grid-tied PV plants or Wind Turbines. To further encourage the use of renewable energy, it is recommended to support the agricultural sector and water establishments to use renewable energy technology for irrigation and water distribution, respectively. This can be done by using PV-Direct Water Pumping technology.
To upgrade and rehabilitate the distribution network so that it accommodates the additional load and hence improve the quality of the electricity supplied, installation of new medium voltage/low voltage (MV/LV) substations and/or upgrade of the existing MV/LV substations is required. This solution requires the reinforcement of EDL’s distribution network as well as the rehabilitation and upgrading of the transmission network through upgrading the transmission capacity of the high voltage/medium voltage (HV/MV) substations and by reinforcing the overhead transmission lines (OHTL).