Energy, the city and everyday life: Living with power outages in post-war Lebanon

Abstract

Years of civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990) resulted in considerable destruction in its towns and cities, with significant impacts on buildings and infrastructure. Notably, the electricity sector continues to suffer from power outages long after the war ended, and the country's citizens have adopted various strategies for maintaining desired electricity services in their homes. This has given rise to informal infrastructures, such as diesel-powered generators run by commercial actors or co-owned by urban residents. This paper uses a qualitative approach to explore the multi-faceted experience of power outages in urban areas of Lebanon, the nature and practices of the resulting informal electricity services that have filled that gap, and their impact on everyday life. It argues that the different practical solutions that households have adopted in order to augment electricity provision to their homes create a differentiated experience of infrastructural services in the city, its neighbourhoods and buildings. It explores these impacts through three junctions: the network of informal electricity providers, new routines and practices of households and the objects and artefacts that constitute the energy landscape in the city. This research contributes to an understanding of relationships produced by these 'new' and informal infrastructures.

Decentralised renewable energy and prosperity for Lebanon

“…The unreliability of the energy services has become inherent in everyday life in Lebanon. 'Illegal' connections to private diesel generators have been normalised to maintain the necessary electricity to reach basic requirements for households and businesses (Abi Ghanem, 2018). The percentage of 'illegal' connections to the grid result in a financial burden on the national economy exceeding USD330 million per year (AEMS, 2017).…”

“…They are further legitimised through local tariffs aimed at them. New housing blocks are built with space for generators so new tenants have little choice but to enter accept this informal arrangement (Verdeil, 2016;Abi Ghanem, 2018). This contractual and physical entanglement of private generators in daily life reflects the adaptability of the population creating their own access to this intrinsic service.…”

“…For a RE transition to be successful insights into energy options must be made available to consumers so they can make informed decisions for themselves and the environment. There is potential in the Lebanese public's adaptability to changing their energy supply (Abi Ghanem, 2018). The higher the amount people pay for informal generators the more willing they are to pay for RE options so designing RE programmes that displace diesel generators have a better chance of success and can attract more funding (UNDP-CEDRO, 2015).…”

Crafting futures in Lebanese refugee camps

“…Crucial issues are the electricity grid (cf. Ghanem, 2017) and water (Yamout & El-Fadel, 2005;Khoury, Graczyk, Burnham, Jurdi, & Goldman, 2016), but also underlying conditions for livelihoods. Infrastructure is therefore here understood in the wider sense given by Edwards (2003), not only as elements of the built environment but as underlying structures enabling other activities.…”

Baumann, H; Kanafani, S; (2020) Vulnerability and Public Services in the Lebanese Context of Mass Displacement: a Literature Review.

“…Areas with longer power outages will have higher exposure to carcinogens (Ibid: 13). These health effects also disproportionately affect poorer areas, which have larger, subscription-based generators, rather than built-in generators that are 'black-boxed' in the construction of new apartment buildings, as Abi Ghanem (2018) notes.…”