BEIRUT: The tug of war between Energy Minister Gibran Bassil and some Cabinet members over the electricity project persisted as the government was set to discuss increasing power shortages Tuesday.Bassil said Monday the previously approved 700 megawatt electricity plan is too urgent to wait for soft loans from Arab funds.

“The [Arab and international] funds will take a very long time to start the [electricity] projects, and those who are demanding using these resources [to finance the electricity plan] are only aiming to impede the plan,” Bassil said after meeting Nawaf Dabbous, a delegate from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, which had previously been suggested as a source of funding to help the country’s struggling electricity sector.

Bassil said his ministry had implemented over 22 projects with financial assistancefrom various international and Arab funding bodies. But these projects, he said, had taken an excessively long time to be completed.

“One project started in 1997 was only finalized in 2010 and another one started in 1996 and was finalized in 2012,” he said, adding: “The government bodies responsible for dealing with these funds have been above accountability and law.”

Bassil argued the government will end up losing money if it opts for softer loans from Arab funding bodies.

“Yearly savings on interest rates will be less than the $5.5 million lost on electricity every day,” he said.

Meanwhile the Danish Ambassador to Beirut Jan Top Christensen suggested Monday that Lebanon could turn to wind energy to help in resolving the country’s power cuts.

Christensen, who met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail in Beirut, said he and Mikati had discussed the subject of wind energy and whether it could be used as a means to help boost the country’s capacity, a statement from Mikati’s office said. The Danish envoy said the two had also discussed the economic potential of introducing such technology in the country.

Mikati said Sunday Lebanon was close to launching a previously approved plan to end power shortages in the country, highlighting during a Twitter session that a transparent mechanism ought to be adopted for implementing the proposal.

Mikati’s Cabinet allocated $1.2 billion last September for Bassil’s planned construction of electricity plants capable of producing some of the additional 700 MW needed.

Demand for electricity currently exceeds 2,400 MW a day, while production struggles at less than 1,500 MW.

Power cuts have become endemic during the past month, as maintenance works in several production units take their toll on electricity supply.

The power outages have prompted citizens to launch a series of demonstrations, particularly in south Lebanon, the Chouf and the Bekaa regions. The protesters have blamed Bassil for the long hours of electricity cuts.

During his visit to Bassil, Dabbous called on the government to lodge an official application for funding from the KFAED saying Kuwait was committed on cooperating with Lebanon on infrastructure projects.

Iran had proposed to sell Lebanon between 200 and 400 megawatts of electricity at reduced prices after Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour met with the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.

Iran also said that it can build two power plants in Lebanon in less than two years and that work can start in a week if the Lebanese government approves Tehran’s offer.

But most energy experts seemed skeptical about the ability of the Lebanese government to seriously implement Bassil’s electricity plan.

Mikati and Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi insist that that any allocation of funds for the electricity project will not have dire effect on the budget deficit. Safadi projects the electricity deficit to reach $2 billion in 2011.

Most of the money earmarked to Electricite du Liban covers the cost of fuel and gas oil which runs the country’s aging power plants.