BEIRUT: The government intends to meet soon with the two companies that made the best offers for electricity generation boats, Energy and Water Minister Gibran Bassil said Wednesday.
Bassil made his statement after holding a lengthy meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi and Environment Minister Nazem Khoury at the Grand Serail to assess all the offers made by foreign companies to lease electricity boats to Lebanon.
Sources told The Daily Star a Turkish and an American company had apparently made the best offers for the Lebanese government.
It is not clear when the government will sign the deal with the two firms but the sources said that Mikati and Bassil are keen to conclude these contracts before summer.
Bassil told reporters that the meeting at the Grand Serail also studied all the technical, logistic and environmental aspects to ensure that Lebanon had indeed received a good offer from the companies.
There were no details on the actual cost of leasing the electricity boats.
Leasing electricity boats is one of several options Lebanon is considering to boost electricity production in the medium and long term.
Bassil said earlier that leasing power boats would not solve completely Lebanon’s chronic electricity rationing and insisted that more funds are required to build power plants over the next five years.
The government agreed in principle to allocate LL1.2 trillion ($800 million) to complete the first phase of the electricity plan.
The first phase includes the construction of 700 MW plants in different areas of Lebanon.
At present, Lebanon’s electricity output hardly exceeds 1,500 MW while the actual consumption is more than 2,500 MW.
To make matters even worse, unexpected breakdowns have taken place at some of the aging plants due to a lack of proper maintenance work.
The power generating boats will produce between 200 MW to 300 MW. Bassil said that once these boats become fully operational, the ministry intends to shut down some of the existing plants for maintenance work.