The roles of natural gas and regional energy exchanges in mitigating GHG emissions: The case of Lebanon

This paper develops a planning strategy that makes use of natural gas and regional energy exchanges in mitigating GHG emissions in the electricity sector of Lebanon for the period extending till 2020. In this respect several scenarios are investigated in an attempt to explore all possible benefits of natural gas supply both on the level of fuel switching of existing units from fuel-oil and gas-oil as well as on the level of planning for all future units to operate on natural gas. Once completed, the regional electricity network should offer a diversity of cheap and clean energy resources for electricity generation ranging from hydro resources in Egypt and Turkey to natural gas resources originating from the gulf region. The analysis in this paper is performed using the LEAP software, which is a computerized framework for evaluating national energy planning policies.