AMMAN (Anadolu) – An agreement was reached Thursday between Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on the final version of a contract to supply Lebanon with Jordanian electricity through Syria.
The announcement came after the electricity ministers from the three nations met in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
Walid Fayad from Lebanon, Syria’s Ghassan Al-Zamil and Saleh Al-Kharabsheh from Jordan discussed the developments in the project to help Lebanon secure its energy needs.
Kharabsheh said agreeing on quantities of electricity that will be supplied to Lebanon was the main outcome of the talks.
We “agreed to supply Lebanon with about 150 megawatts of electricity from midnight until 6 a.m., and 250 megawatts during the rest of the time,” he said at a news conference after the meeting.
He said he expected work to be completed before the end of the year.
Fayad confirmed the approval of the World Bank to finance the project to supply Lebanon with electricity from the Jordanian network.
“An environmentally and financially appropriate formula for the agreement and appropriate conditions for the cost of Jordanian electricity to Lebanon through Syria was reached,” he said.
Al-Zamil said his country is “serious” about re-operating the electrical interconnection line with Jordan which he noted will cost $5.5 million and is set to convene at end of the year.
“The electricity line is not ready. It needs until the end of the year to be ready and our work teams are working round the clock,” Zamil said.
Jordan and Syria have been electricity-interconnected via a 400 kilovolt (kV) transmission line since 2001, but it has been out of service since 2012 due to technical reasons.
Syria has interconnection lines with Lebanon by transmission lines of 400 kV, 230 kV and 66 kV.
Last month, Damascus agreed to the Lebanese government’s request to help transport gas from Egypt and electricity from Jordan via Syrian territory to Lebanon.