Monrovia — In late April, the Liberia Electricity Corporation announced that the ongoing power outages at the time were due to ongoing works at the TRANSCO CLSG Botota substation that was being prepared to be energized, however, as the outages continue, LEC has again disclosed that Cote d'Ivoire Energies (CIE) is no longer willing to supply Liberia beyond its contracted 27megawatts.
The latest clarification by the LEC comes amid speculations that TRANSCO CLSG which transports electricity from the Ivory Coast to Liberia through a power purchase agreement had disconnected Liberia - a speculation which FrontPageAfrica ascertained to be false.
On October 21, 2022, Liberia and Ivory Coast signed a power purchase agreement for the supply of 27MW of electricity to beef up the supply of stable electricity in Liberia. Mr. Monie Captan, Acting Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) signed for Liberia.
The signing was part of the electricity interconnection project between Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea aimed at consolidating the foundations of strong and sustainable energy cooperation for the well-being of the populations of the CLSG countries.
On December 1, 2022, Liberia witnessed the historic switching on of the CLSG grid and delivered the much-awaited affordable and reliable electricity to the public.
The historic event was graced by an array of Liberian government officials including Ministers of Mines and Energy, Information, and Internal Affairs, acting Chief Executive Officer of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monie R. Captan, TRANSCO CLSG's high-level delegation from Cote d'Ivoire headed by its General Manager Mohammed M. Sherif, member of the national legislature, members of the diplomatic corps including the US and the EU Ambassadors, development partners, representatives of CI Energies, Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC), and other dignitaries.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Captain disclosed that the CLSG connection to the Liberian network would increase LEC's power generation capacity by 27 Megawatts. He said the power added on amounts to about 50% of what Mt. Coffee Hydro currently generates. Mr. Captan said the additional power will help Liberia go a long way in addressing the country's dry season needs.
At that event, Mr. Captan maintained that, Cote d'Ivoire is not giving us free electricity. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) we signed requires Liberia to pay for the electricity it receives. Our goal is to work with communities in making this agreement sustainable and successful through legal connections and regular payment of electricity bills."
However, sources familiar with the developments within the LEC informed FrontPageAfrica that current outages is a result of Liberia exceeding the contracted megawatts in the power purchase agreement and at the same time not paying for the contracted 27 megawatts since the line was switched on in December last year despite the Ivory Coast being lenient with the consumption of extra 23 megawatts outside the contracted agreement.
The source: "The agreement that was signed between the Liberian government through the Liberia Electricity Corporation spells it out clearly that Liberia would be contracting 27MW from Cote d'Ivoire Energies, but Liberia has been using an additional 23MW outside the contract. The funny thing about it is that even for the original 27MW that LEC contracted CI Energies for, they've not paid anything since December. So, Cote D'Ivoire Energies decided to put a restriction on Liberia's line at the Man sub-station. Because of that, Liberia isn't able to get the additional 23MW it was using any longer, hence, its supply in Liberia has been hindered."
However, these claims were rebutted by the Chief Executive Officer of the LEC, Mr. Monie Captan who acknowledged that a conductor has been placed at the Man Substation that supplies Liberia to restrict Liberia to the 27 megawatts stated in the Power Purchase Agreement.
"The reason is because CIE does not have enough power they give us more than we contracted. The device placed at the Man substation affects Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. It was not related to payment. As a matter of fact, CIE has a bank guarantee from LEC issued by a bank in Abidjan as security for payment," Mr. Captan said.
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According to the LEC, it has on many occasions informed the public that the contracted capacity from CI Energies will not meet LEC's peak demand, which currently exceeds 70MW.
Peak demands are periods when the highest energy consumption is experienced and in the case of Liberia, it lasts from 6am to 9am and 6pm to 11pm. During off-peak periods, LEC can meet the energy demand.
To mitigate the gap created during the peak period, LEC generates additional power through its thermal and hydropower plants. The additional power generated by LEC is approximately 47MW, which provides a combined capacity with CLSG of 74MW. However, due to the exceedingly high cost of fuel, LEC has limited the use of its thermal plants to produce more cost-reflective energy. The resultant gap, which is minimum, is mitigated through load shedding.
