Amidst the ongoing socio-economic crisis, many Lebanese villages have been enduring increasingly lengthy electricity shortages. In the past year, state power cuts have reached an average of 22 hours each day. In response, the USAID-funded Community Support Program (CSP) is supporting underserved communities in Lebanon’s Beqaa, North, and South regions by providing solar energy solutions and generators to municipalities while also developing their technical capacities to ensure sustainable operations and maintenance. As part of this process, CSP established the ‘Generators Management Community of Practice’, a network of 30 municipalities aiming to share lessons learned and best practices and develop innovative solutions to sustain the operations of generators amidst diminishing revenues.

On May 11, 2023, CSP hosted a webinar for its Generators Management Community of Practice to discuss innovative solutions in solar energy provision and how to synchronize household solar grids with municipal generators. The webinar was attended by 40 representatives from 19 municipalities and three experts in clean energy. Following the webinar, CSP received requests from ten municipalities to implement the innovative solutions discussed as they would decrease the operational expenses of USAID provided generators.

“It’s a valuable discussion that saved us from a $300,000 loss. We were about to receive diaspora funding to buy inverters and batteries for the community, but after the discussion with the experts, we realized that there are other less costly and more impactful solutions for our residents,” stated Nazir Abou Lteif, Mayor of Aiha, Beqaa.