MONROVIA – Liberia would be the first country among the TRANSCO CLSG nations to commission transmission lines from the Ivory Coast that would bring into the country 225kv volts to complement the Mount Coffee Hydro for affordable and widespread electricity distribution throughout Liberia.
The transmission line is expected to go live late February.
This, according to the TRANSCO CLSG General Manager Mr. Mohamed Sherif, would not have been possible without the commitment from the Government of Liberia, especially the Minister of Finance and Development Planning.
Mr. Sherif took journalists on a tour at the substation at the Mount Coffee Hydro Power Plant disclosed that the project’s substation at the site is the biggest in all four project countries.
He said electricity being a top priority of President George Weah’s administration as enshrined in the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, TRANSCO engaged the government on the continuity of the project.
According to him, the time, the site designated for the substation at Mount Coffee was a bare muddy ground but the Weah-led administration and the collaboration of the Minister of Finance saw the project going at a speed faster than neighboring beneficiaries like Sierra Leone and Guinea.
“We needed to find additional financing for the project because due to the Ebola crisis because when the Ebola was over, there was additional cost of about US$52 million and we needed to get that money quickly. Min. Tweah and his team immediately joined collaboration with us, fought hard, negotiated with the relevant stakeholders, the donors. The donors in this case was the World Bank. We got the additional financing and it was signed and ratified in the Legislature and the Minister led that whole process,” Mr. Sherif said.
He said at the inception of the government, the project was about 20 percent but it is currently at about 97 percent nearing completion from Mah in Ivory Coast to the Mount Coffee substation.
The Connectivity
The initial supply of the electricity is in Mah, Ivory Coast and would be supplied to Yekepa, Nimba County. There is a 225kv substation in Yekepa which the LEC would connect to to supply electricity in Nimba.
The Yekepa substation is then linked to another substation in Botota which would supply Central Liberia and the Southeastern Liberia and also to the Lofa in the north.
From Botota, the transmission lines lead to a substation Buchanan in Grand Bassa which would electrify Grand Bassa, Rivercess County and so parts of Margibi County.
“From Buchanan we come to Mount Coffee is the biggest among the CLSG substations in the four countries. This is mainly there for Montserrado given the population density of Montserrado County,” Mr. Sherif disclosed.
There is another substation in Mano which will supply the inhabitants of Gbarpolu, Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties.
Mr. Sherif, however, added that the power coming to Liberia is intended to beef up the Liberia Electricity Corporation’s supply capacity which would see increased connectivity and a drop in the cost of electricity, but TRANSCO CLSG would not be involved with the distribution process.
He said it would be entirely up to the LEC to distribute the electricity to its clients.
