A Turkish power ship has been hooked up to Lebanon’s power grid and is now supplying an additional two hours of electricity to the country, said Energy Minister Gebran Bassil during an inauguration ceremony on Thursday night at the Zouk power plant.
Fatmagul Sultanm, the Turkish electricity barge now hooked up to the Zouk power plant, is currently providing 188 megawatts of electricity to the country.
A second ship is set to arrive in June to provide an additional 82 megawatts of power.
Electricite Du Liban General-Manager Kamal Hayek said that the two ships would cumulatively boost Lebanon’s power supply by three hours just in time for the summer months when electricity demand peaks at 3,000 megawatts.
Bassil acknowledged that the additional power supply provided by the Turkish ships is not an “ultimate solution” to Lebanon’s power crisis but “a three-year temporary solution to allow the rehabilitation of the Zouk and Jiyyeh power plants.”
The Turkish ambassador to Lebanon, Inan Ozyildiz, said he hopes the Energy Ministry’s contract with the owner and operator of the two ships, Karadeniz Holding, will pave the way for more bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
“This giant project is a clear example of the expanding cooperation between Turkey and Lebanon in the field of Energy,” Ozyildiz said.
“I believe there is still a huge potential to tap. I am continuously encouraging Turkish firms to undertake further projects [in Lebanon] and I believe that Karadeniz Energy will set a very solid example to this end,” he added.
