Lebanon’s government is preparing to launch an unprecedented crackdown on the country’s sprawling private generator industry, which has long operated beyond State control and on which citizens have relied almost entirely since the onset of nationwide power outages, Al-Modon news platform revealed.

For decades, owners of private power generators have entrenched themselves as a dominant force outside the reach of ministries, regulators and security agencies, turning the service into a de facto sector built on necessity rather than law. Consumers unhappy with rationing decisions, meter installation, or other rules can opt out of subscriptions; a choice few can afford in a country where state electricity remains scarce.

The influence generator operators accumulated even before the financial collapse has forced the state to create ad hoc mechanisms to curb abuses, particularly price manipulation. Yet a comprehensive solution has remained elusive.

Now, officials say a “wake-up call” is underway, aimed at imposing rules and restrictions to end what they describe as extortion of both the public and the State. Penalties for noncompliance will include confiscating generators and handing them over to municipalities. The question, however, is whether this will amount to a decisive enforcement push or another short-lived, symbolic campaign.

The effort follows a series of meetings at ministries overseeing the sector and at the Grand Serail, where Prime Minister Nawaf Salam chaired a session. The latest meeting, on Monday, sought to finalize mechanisms to regulate the industry, focusing on enforcing the Energy Ministry’s official tariff, ensuring the installation of meters, and upholding environmental standards.

Sources familiar with the discussions told Al-Modon that the State is preparing a coordinated plan involving ministries, security agencies, and the judiciary.

“It is not an easy plan, but it can resolve the issue,” one source said, stressing that success hinges on judicial follow-through.

Currently, Economy Ministry inspectors, often accompanied by State Security patrols, file violation reports to the judiciary, where cases “either disappear or end with a fine,” the source said. Generator owners, they added, view fines as negligible compared to the cost of meeting technical and environmental requirements, installing meters, and adhering to tariffs. The new plan would give operators one month to comply or face the confiscation of their machines, which would then be transferred to municipalities.

Officials acknowledge that political pressure will be a major hurdle. Participants in the meetings have deemed it in as inevitable, but some believe parties will hesitate to shield generator owners against their own constituents, who are also bearing the costs of the operators’ practices.

Farid Boustany, head of parliament’s Committee on National Economy, Industry, Trade and Planning, dismissed concerns about political cover, saying it “will be useless in the face of a serious state decision to enforce the law with the backing of security forces.”

“Anyone who objects will end up in prison,” he told Al-Modon, stressing the need to protect consumers and secure the state’s tax revenues from the sector by obligating generator owners to pay income tax and VAT. He also cited public health concerns, including pollution and cancer risks, and urged the Energy Ministry to increase public electricity supply to reduce reliance on private generators.

Boustany estimated the sector’s value at about $2 billion and said it is controlled by entrenched cartels that require strict oversight. But the structural roots of the industry — chronic State power cuts and the lucrative diesel trade — are unlikely to change without political will.

With no major shift in Lebanon’s political landscape, the nexus between commerce, politics and lawlessness is expected to persist. Officials fear the new plan could, like previous campaigns, devolve into a few high-profile confiscations for the cameras before fading away.

Meaningful change, they say, requires medium- and long-term measures, including forming an energy regulatory authority, opening the sector to renewable energy investments under state oversight, restructuring state utility Électricité du Liban by appointing a board, cutting wasteful projects, improving bill collection, curbing losses, and placing generator operations under municipal authority. In this model, municipalities would oversee production and distribution in line with their financial capacity.