Lebanon raises cost of electricity for first time since 1990s

Lebanon’s state power company, Electricite du Liban (EDL) announced yesterday that it is raising the price of electricity for the first time since the 1990s, Reuters reported.

An EDL spokesperson said power will now be priced at 10 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the first 100 kWh consumed, and 27 cents per kWh for consumption above that.

The spokesman said the new power costs would be calculated in Lebanese pounds at the central bank’s Sayrafa platform exchange rate, which sat at around 30,000 pounds per US dollar yesterday.

The price for state power in Lebanese pounds was previously equivalent to roughly one cent per kWh.

Government officials have said that increasing the price of power would allow the state to afford to purchase more fuel to fire power plants, thereby increasing supply from an hour or two per day to up to ten hours per day.

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Lebanon has no centrally generated electricity after fuel shortages forced its two largest power stations to shut down – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]