Monrovia – Liberia Expecting Current (LEC) some Liberians would sarcastically call Liberia Electricity Company (LEC) due to its inconsistency and frequent power outages.
Actually, it is the Liberia Electricity Corporation – the autonomous body responsible for supplying and regulating electricity in Liberia.
“I am completely fed up with LEC! If there were another company I would switch.
Why is it that every Saturday and Sunday it goes off? This is the time when families are home together.
They could be cleaning, cooking, preparing meals, etc.
Now I come home from work after having a sleepless night wanting to rest my body, and again no LEC.
This is very inconvenient. I lose food stored in my freezer (I can’t count how many times), my money is wasting on my premium DSTV subscription, it affects my blood pressure because I don’t sleep at night, it affects my job because I’m sluggish and tired, it’s just a nuisance” – LEC Customer writes on social media
In the absence of a hydro which is currently being rehabilitated, LEC uses Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) generators to supply only a privileged few electricity in Liberia’s capital – Monrovia.
However, in addition to its inability to supply even half the city of Monrovia electricity, the privileged few who have access to this public utility find themselves in the same shoes with those who don’t have access to electricity at all.
In recent time, power outages in Monrovia continue to intensify with many people in several parts of the city experiencing 24-hour power outage and some only 12 hours power supply. In some extreme cases, customers of the Liberia Electricity Corporation enjoy only six hours of uninterrupted power supply, especially on Sundays.
In most cases, there are no public/radio announcements to that effect that would ready people for the outage.
An LEC customer (name withheld) apparently frustrated over the frequent outages posted on social media: “I am completely fed up with LEC!!!!!! If there were another company I would switch. Why is it that every Saturday and Sunday it goes off???? This is the time when families are home together.
“They could be cleaning, cooking, preparing meals, etc. Now I come home from work after having a sleepless night wanting to rest my body, and again no LEC.”
“This is very inconvenient. I lose food stored in my freezer (I can’t count how many times), my money is wasting on my premium DSTV subscription, it affects my blood pressure because I don’t sleep at night, it effects my job because I’m sluggish and tired, it’s just a nuisance.”
“And worst of all there is no warning and it’s the most expensive electricity in the world. This is still happening after 12 years.
“Somebody please help me to understand.”
This social media user is not the only frustrated LEC customer.
“Most small businesses in Central Monrovia heavily rely for power from LEC to fully function but the inconsistencies of LEC puts work on hold for hours and in some cases for an entire day.
Citizens’ Reaction
James Tarpeh, a resident of Sinkor told FrontPageAfrica – “For me I think LEC is a joker that is only here to collect our money and not providing the services we paid for.”
“It is frustrating for you to pay your LEC bills and you don’t get what you paid for. It is a complete madness on the part of LEC”.
David Bestman, a businessman of in the 18th Street Community, Sinkor expressed resentment in LEC for not providing him the service he paid for.
“You will not believe it my brother, I buy LEC credits for my meter and when the current comes today, tomorrow we will not get light; and we that sell frozen things are worried because our items spoil almost all the time when there is no LEC current,” he lamented.
Sarah Boakai of 12th Street, Sinkor believes it was painful to subscribe to a company that has no interest in the Liberian people.
“I think it was better we don’t have light from government than to have a company that is eating our money free of charge and not providing the services we need. I thought it was a good thing to subscribe with company like LEC that does not have interest its people,” she said angrily.
Victor Chea, a resident of Barrolle Practice Ground, said he did all he could to get his home connected to LEC to help prevent criminals from attacking his home at night.
However, according to him, the situation remains the same because LEC is often off.
“Anytime we don’t have LEC in the Community that’s when the criminals come here and steal our things because the area is often dark; this is causing a serious problem for us here, government needs to do something about this light business,” he stressed.
“I think our community current [private suppliers from generators] is better than LEC nowadays because our community light comes on by 7PM and goes at 6AM, by that time at least day has broken and the place is clear; but for LEC, it is a Christmas light that goes off and after few minutes it comes on; at times you don’t see it at all, especially people who live in the Gardnesville and Paynesville belts,” James Pajibo, a resident of Monrovia said.
Moses Tolbert of the Airfield Community could not hold his peace as he frowned on the LEC saying, “I feel so frustrated when I am home with my family at weekends, especially on Saturdays and on Sundays and we don’t get light until sometimes around 4PM or 5PM; for God in heaven’s sake my brother, after the whole week working and children going to school, only on the weekends our kids have to watch movies, but LEC normally deprives them of that though we recharge our meter,” Tolbert said.
Bad Customer Service
Besides fluctuations in power supply, LEC is well known by its customer for their slow pace in responding to complaints.
In the first place, prospective customers who apply for connection sometimes wait up to six months before connection they are connected.
The dangers falling light poles pose to citizens are often overlooked by the LEC.
Wooden poles planted by LEC have on numerous occasions fallen on cars, people’s houses and even along the streets, especially during rainy season when heavy storm blows.
At the onset, many citizens complained about the quality of poles being planted and the dangers they were posing to pedestrians, but the LEC often played deaf ears to these complaints.
LEC Response
Public Relations Specialist at LEC, Mambu Kpargoi, said the corporation for the past three months regularly announces her outages.
“It is a policy of the management of the Liberia Electricity Corporation to announce her planned outages.”
“We have made it a policy to inform the public about planned outages; we are a utility company we have responsibility to our consumers,” Kpargoi said.
Kpargoi explained that the series of outages during the weekend was to allow the LEC engineers work on the synchronization of lines between Bushrod and Mount Coffee Hydro.
“During the weekend, the management announces the series of outages that are intended to allow our engineers to continue to work on the synchronization of lines between Bushrod to the Mount Coffee project,” LEC Public Relations Specialist added.
“On Sunday we responded to calls from residents around the Sam Barbecue VAMOMA community that there was a light pole on fire, so our technical people had to isolate the Sinkor area,” Kpargoi gave clarity on power outage in Sinkor over the weekend.
Kpargoi continued: “In this utility business we run, there are planned and unplanned outages. These are equipment and they are subject to sometimes faultiness; if we deem it necessary to isolate a part of the city, we do it and repair the situation and restore the electricity supply.
“Everywhere in the world you find these kinds of unforeseen circumstances that will lead to unplanned power outages, and the situation in Sinkor was as the result of an emergency situation.”
The Public Relations Specialist that the corporation was considering using other means to enhance the flow of information to the public.
Lennart Dodoo | +231 777 788 805 | +231 886 33 40 65 | [email protected]