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Inside the Haywire World of Beirut's Electricity Blackouts, and the Struggle Faced By Residents To Keep Their Lights and Wi-Fi On and Gadgets Charged (wired.com)
Blackouts are common in the Lebanese capital, forcing energy consumers to pay whoever can get them power. Wired looked at how the residents of Beirut keep their lights on -- and their gadgets charged -- in the face of the rolling blackouts. From the report: Electrical power here does not come without concerted exertion or personal sacrifice. Gas-powered generators and their operators fill the void created by a strained electric grid. Most people in Lebanon, in turn, are often stuck with two bills, and sometimes get creative to keep their personal devices -- laptops, cell phones, tablets, smart watches -- from going dead. Meanwhile, as citizens scramble to keep their inanimate objects alive, the local authorities are complicit in this patchwork arrangement, taking payments from the gray-market generator operators and perpetuating a nation's struggle to stay wired.
Lebanon has been a glimmering country ever since the 15-year civil war began in 1975, and the reverberations from that conflict persist. These days there is only one city, Zahle, with electricity 24/7. Computer banks in schools and large air conditioners pumping out chills strain the grid, and daily state-mandated power cuts run from at least three hours to 12 hours or more. Families endure power outages mid-cooking, mid-washing, mid-Netflix binging. Residents rely on mobile phone apps to track the time of day the power will be cut, as it shifts between three-hour windows in the morning and afternoon, rotating throughout the week.
Once called the Paris of the Middle East, sometimes the region's Sin City, Beirut's supplementary power needs are effectively under the control of what is known here as the generator mafia: a loose conglomerate of generator owners and landlords who supply a great deal of the country's power. This group is indirectly responsible for the Wi-Fi, which makes possible any number of WhatsApp conversations -- an indispensable lifeline for the country's refugees, foreign aid workers, and journalists and locals alike.
Lebanon has been a glimmering country ever since the 15-year civil war began in 1975, and the reverberations from that conflict persist. These days there is only one city, Zahle, with electricity 24/7. Computer banks in schools and large air conditioners pumping out chills strain the grid, and daily state-mandated power cuts run from at least three hours to 12 hours or more. Families endure power outages mid-cooking, mid-washing, mid-Netflix binging. Residents rely on mobile phone apps to track the time of day the power will be cut, as it shifts between three-hour windows in the morning and afternoon, rotating throughout the week.
Once called the Paris of the Middle East, sometimes the region's Sin City, Beirut's supplementary power needs are effectively under the control of what is known here as the generator mafia: a loose conglomerate of generator owners and landlords who supply a great deal of the country's power. This group is indirectly responsible for the Wi-Fi, which makes possible any number of WhatsApp conversations -- an indispensable lifeline for the country's refugees, foreign aid workers, and journalists and locals alike.
All they need is Solar Panels and Tesla PowerWalls and the problem will go away. I figure at a cost of around $50,000 per household it could be done for about $25 billion. And for a small incremental cost they could all drive Teslas and never pay for petrol.
Beruit ended up with English wiring and French plumbing. They need all the help they can get!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I was just in Beirut last month â" this article is spot on. Worse is outside of Beirut, where the official electricity is only on for about 3 hours per day, and gray market providers serve the other 21 hours, at a much higher price. One girl told me her family spends $400 USD/mo just for a few lights and occasional A/C in one room, and while there are some very wealthy families in Lebanon, there are far more people barely scraping by.
The three biggest problems are: 1) The constitutional mandate for equal representation from each major religion, and the lack of cooperation therein to create new infrastructure projects.
2) Entrenched corrupt interests in government. Dynastic families control the three most powerful positions, and they have entrenched interests in preserving the status quo, profiting off the failures of government by providing for-profit services in the private sector.
3) Iran and Saudi both use Lebanon as a proxy, exercising and influencing soft and hard power in the region. They each pour money into the country, funding fundamentalist teaching and intolerance, and ratcheting up the tension. There *is* a sense of both comraderie and war weariness amongst most Lebanese, which has probably prevented another civil war, but until Lebanon stands on her own, she will continue to be vulnerable to this undue influence from neighbors in the region. Which is a shame, because culturally, historically, and geographically, itâ(TM)s one of the most remarkable and beautiful countries Iâ(TM)ve ever visited.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere