Energy and Natural Resources Sector Strategy 2021-2023.

This Energy and Natural Resources Sector Strategy is a nationwide sectoral document that falls within the broader National Development Plan 2021 - 2023 endorsed by Prime Minister's Office. The energy sector in Palestine aims to advance in all its branches: generation, transmission, and distribution to achieve the Energy Authority’s mission of (i) preparing and developing appropriate policies and legislation to achieve sustainable energy security under international best practices; (ii) building an energy system capable of meeting the needs of the Palestinian citizen; (iii) achieve a comprehensive and sustainable development at reasonable prices that reflect the true cost of production, transportation, distribution, and consumption; (iv) utilizing all locally available energy sources, especially renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources, with high efficiency, quality, and reliability that meet internationally approved specifications and comply with internationally approved environmental standards. Among the most important goals to be achieved through this Strategy (i) increasing the amount of locally produced capacity, exploiting local resources and reducing dependence on imports as much as possible; (ii) increasing the share of energy produced from new and renewable energy sources in the energy balance to mitigate negative environmental impacts; (iii) efficient production, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy, and adopting a policy of rationalizing consumption and reducing waste; (iv) diversifying energy sources to ensure energy security by increasing the proportion of energy produced locally and from all sources, and increasing the proportion of imported energy through regional connectivity and energy exchange with neighboring countries; and (v) building specialized and effective institutions in the energy sector capable of implementing development programs and developing the energy sector, and separating the sector’s activities from the policymaker, executor of these policies, and the supervisory body to implement these policies. Achieving these goals helps to secure energy at competitive prices which in turn contributes to lowering the cost to the consumer. The aforementioned goals can be achieved through the following (i) provision of strategic energy reserves; (ii) energy exchange with neighboring countries; (iii) developed transmission and distribution system; (iv) applying modern technologies and automating the monitoring and control of the energy transmission and distribution system; (v) energy efficiency and rationalization of consumption; (vi) intervening on the institutions operating in the energy sector; (vii) integrated and comprehensive planning for the energy sector within a single policy framework; (viii) efficiency of the cadres working in the energy sector; (ix) increasing the economic efficiency of the sector; (x) supplying natural gas to the Gaza power station and providing natural gas resources to build power stations in the West Bank; (xi) exploitation of natural gas discovered in the Gaza Sea and potential oil resources in the West Bank; (xii) the completion of the drafting of the commercial agreement with the Israel Electricity Company regarding the import of electricity.