At twelve o’clock, the clock strikes twelve. Consider how busy you will be on New Year’s Day. Electricity is turned off if it originates from the state or generator owners who switch off their generators after midnight in most Lebanese locations.

This fantasy will become a reality. The Ministry of Energy informed the Lebanese that the electrical patching will continue for the next two months, including Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The output will be 600 megawatts, enough to provide 3 to 4 hours of power every day.

At that time, there will be no dollars to buy fuel and diesel or increase electrical production, and the repair of a gas-drawing line in Lebanon has yet to be completed and is awaiting funding, despite the fact that the Jordanian contract for importing gas and electricity is ready and awaiting to be concluded.

So yet, the funds required to pay the gas and electricity suppliers, as well as the service providers’ dues, have not been acquired.

It is believed that negotiations are continuing to agree on a single pricing for the dollar and to convert what is received in Lebanese pounds into dollars at a specific price, which is one of the World Bank’s funding criteria.

In light of such a dire situation, all eyes are on France, the country to which Prime Minister Najib Mikati is heading in the next few days to discuss the master plan for Lebanon’s energy sector with French enterprises and Electricité de France.

According to sources familiar with the file, there are many ideas for funding power plants, their size, cost, and feasibility, but they must be placed within the overall technical, economic, and financial plan that the French Electricity Company is working on, and any positive development will not be seen in the near future.

Meanwhile, this holiday most Lebanese will “stay at home” to blow out the last 2021 candle, unless the generators owners still have some mercy on this poor population! Anyway, happy new year!