2nd Townhall Meeting: Enhancing Community Engagement through a Policy Implementation of the Decentralized Renewable Energy Law

You can register to attend by following this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Us-zW4H0ajarnae6hvgWFqmgE-GykdJSqW_yCep... for the physical attendance, which will take place in the Rotana Gefinor Hotel or this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2117183775943/WN_QOajXyI5TeOO_Y... for online attendance. You will receive a Zoom confirmation email should your registration be successful. Alternatively, you can watch the event live here on our Facebook page.

Since the start of the ongoing collapse of the Lebanese economy in 2019, one of the most affected sectors has been the already very fragile electricity sector, resulting in increasingly frequent power blackouts across Lebanon. While most residents have taken to increasing their usage of private generators, many have also begun to rely on renewable energies, especially solar energy, to compensate during the power cuts. Consequently, new legislation has been advanced to better regulate and monitor this burgeoning sector. One such example is the Decentralized Renewable Energy Law (DRE), which was passed in the Lebanese Parliament in December 2023. Under this new law, consumers are now able to exchange electricity produced thanks to solar energy with the Electricity Du Liban, or to instead keep it stored for 12-month cycles in the energy grid. In addition, authorized producers of solar energy can use the public grid with an agreement with EDL and by paying a grid utilization fee to distribute their generated capacity at a maximum rate determined by the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), which has yet to be formally established. When the end-users are close enough to one another and have a purchase agreement signed between them, it is also possible for them under this law to engage in direct transactions without using the EDL’s system. All in all, this law regulates the capacity of privately owned renewable energy systems (including solar energy) to 10 megawatts. 

Despite this law’s potential centrality to the future of the renewable energy ecosystem in Lebanon, there is so far little proper understanding among the country’s residents of what this law entails, including when the law will be implemented, who is accountable for implementing and monitoring it, and where their right to having a constant and steady supply of energy lies. In addition, how this would work and be applied within Lebanon’s unique socio-economic context remains to be seen, alongside how the private sector, and different public entities, would ultimately benefit from it? 

Following our February 7th webinar on the Decentralized Renewable Energy Law with two energy experts, we aim to push the discussion further on this topic and to initiate more spaces for learning and dialogue from those who work closely with the important policies and legislations. This discussion will involve a range of stakeholders who either took part in the drafting of this law, or who have studied its effects and impacts or in the future or would be part of its implementation and monitoring its impact.  Perspectives from the private sector will also be included alongside critical perspectives on the law, with the aim of proposing alternative perspectives and solutions on this matter. We will be gathering to discuss the following questions:

• Who will benefit from the Decentralized Renewable Energy Law?  
• Is this law fair to communities and to businesses?
• Does it have the potential of actually overhauling the current energy system in Lebanon?
• Who will be in charge of implementing it?
• Who are the companies that have invested the most in this?
• How much is it costing end user and who monitors the cost?
• What does peer-to-peer even mean within the context of such a law? 
• How will the regulatory authorities be selected?
• Where is the regulatory authority in 2024?