by aawsat.com — Lebanon has for decades struggled with daily power cuts, AP reported. Last week, Lebanon received its third floating power station — the 235-megawatt Esra Sultan, built and operated by the privately owned Turkish Karadeniz Energy Group. Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil billed it as a temporary but thrifty measure to reduce part of Lebanon’s electricity deficit. It is the third so-called “power ship” to dock in Lebanon since 2013. Lebanon recently extended its contract with Karadeniz to ensure that at least two of the barges will continue serving the country for another one to three years, AP added. The outages are costing businesses and residents billions of dollars in private generation fees and lost productivity, says the energy minister. “We need emergency power,” said Abi Khalil, who later added that “the influx of refugees from neighboring war-torn Syria has further strained Lebanon’s power sector.”

According to AP, the UN Syrian refugees since 2011, an estimated one-fifth of Lebanon’s population. They draw approximately 500 megawatts of power from the grid, a study by the joint 2017 Energy Ministry and the UN. “I don’t think any country in the world could have planned for such a dramatic burst in its population,” said Abi Khalil. But analysts say the problems run deeper. Plans to reform the sector have been shelved and drawn up again with each successive government, says Lebanese economist Mounir Rached, who advises the Finance Ministry. “There’s corruption in every process of the generation cycle,” said Rached. In 2010, then-Energy Minister Gebran Bassil famously pledged to deliver 24-hours electricity by 2015.