The An-Nahar English website published on Friday an article entitled: “Lebanon's electricity woes makes power ships a necessity” whereby it said that “Lebanon's inability to offer round the clock electricity has made it necessary to contract one of the world’s largest power ship companies, Turkey's Karadeniz Energy Group, to fill the gap.”
The article added that “floating power plants, owned and operated by Karpowership have been deployed to numerous continents, supplying electricity to Ghana, Sudan, Sierra Leon and Indonesia.”
“Despite accusations of bleeding the state's coffers, Karpowership’s cost of electricity is lower than that of the state-owned EDL, private generators and imports from Syria, industry sources say,” it went on by saying.
The article noted that “according to estimates, the cost of production from the power ships amounts to 14 cents/kWh while imported electricity from Syria costs 16 cents/kWh. Private generators, on the other hand, cost 30 cents/kWh.”
“The Turkish company first won a tender in 2012 and received the unanimous approval of the Cabinet after beating out stiff competition from American and European firms,” it added.
“Until a drastic solution is found to Lebanon's electricity woes, those power ships remain a necessity to cover the deficit in production, the sources added. They deliver a total capacity of 370 MW, which represents 25 percent of Lebanon’s total electricity production, the equivalent of 4 hours of electricity per day,” it also stressed.
The article added that the “annual contract with the Turkish company costs the Lebanese treasury $130 million per year, sources say, noting that the production cost per kWh could drop if the ships are supplied with LNG rather than fuel oil.
It concluded by saying that “sources added that the Lebanese government has yet to settle over $140 million in late dues owed to the company, which currently operates floating power plans in Zouk and Jiyeh. However, the company continues to operate the power barges, the source added.”
To read the article on the website, please click
here.