Bills and illnesses: The high cost of Lebanon's power shortage

Report by Lara El Hachem, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi  

In most countries, electricity is a basic right, but in Lebanon, it has long been a luxury.

Despite decades of promises to provide round-the-clock power, Lebanese citizens remain dependent on costly private generators to avoid blackouts.

Between January 2024 and February 2025, under then-Energy Minister Walid Fayad, state power supply averaged just four to six hours a day. His successor, Minister Joe Saddi, has yet to bring noticeable improvement.

That shortfall has forced households and businesses to rely heavily on neighborhood generators, driving up financial and health costs. State electricity costs roughly 21 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with an average of 30 cents for generator power. Yet operators often impose arbitrary rates that soar to as high as 70 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The result is a double burden on citizens, who pay two bills, one to the state utility and another to generator owners, while also facing rising pollution and health risks from generator emissions, which contribute to Lebanon's high cancer rates.

While Electricité du Liban (EDL) reports an 85% collection rate and monthly revenues of $50 million, output remains far below demand.

Therefore, the government must move beyond patchwork solutions and take concrete steps: launching a nationwide campaign to dismantle illegal connections, reaching political agreements on bill collection in Palestinian and Syrian refugee camps, and investing in both repairing old power plants and building new ones capable of producing clean energy rather than burning heavy fuel oil.