Lebanon's new government has agreed to significantly lower the roughly $2 billion deficit in the electricity sector as part of a reform plan aimed at improving the states crippled finances.
Minister Saad Hariri has said that Lebanon would seek to reduce subsidies in the sector by $600 million this year, representing 30-40 percent of the total assistance.
Playing down this possibility, MP Nazih Najem, the head of Parliament's Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water committee, said that "nobody" would support decreasing subsidies until Lebanon had 24/7 electricity, something he said could be achieved this year.
While Lebanon residents buy subsidized electricity at a price of about 9.5 cents per kilowatt-hour from the state, down from the roughly 17 cents per kilowatt-hour production cost, generator subscriptions are much more expensive.
Lebanon already has two such barges, providing about 340 megawatts of the country's total energy supply. The last government launched a tender for 850 MW of emergency electricity, which could very likely result in the introduction of several new barges.
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