The Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) former Chief Executive Officer Monie R. Captan says that his management procured and stored 1.62 million gallons of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) for the operation of thermal generators at the corporation’s Bushrod Island facility.
The Former LEC CEO made the statement recently during a press conference in light of the expiration of his contract at LEC that ended on November 30, 2024. Mr. Captan said the value of the fuel stock is approximately US$5million and the stock level. However it cannot serve the entire dry season and will have to be augmented.
He said negotiations are ongoing to renew the Power Purchase Agreement with CIE, which will expire at the end of December 2024; adding that LEC has submitted a proposal to CIE/CI Energies, and awaits a draft renewal proposal for the PPA, with terms and conditions going forward.
“Every effort has been made to increase the firm capacity that will be supplied to LEC under the PPA. LEC management has engaged in negotiations with Volta River Authority to purchase up to 50MW of power from Ghana,” Captan said. According to him, those negotiations are subject to the successful negotiation of trans-border transmission agreements with Ghana, Cote d’ivoire and Transco CLSG. Mr. Captan said 3 new substations were added to the grid in Congo Town, RIA and Schieffelin, enabling the extension of electricity to as far as Cotton Tree and Dolos Town in Margibi County through donor support.
“Today, LEC has 13 major substations, namely Bushrod, Mt. Coffee, Kru Town, Virginia, Kle, Capitol, Congotown, Stockton Creek, Gardnersville, Paynesville, Kakata, Schietfelin, and RIA. These substations supply energy through a total of 39 MV/feeder networks. From 2022 to date, LEC added 92km of high voltage (HV)/transmission lines (66KV), 138km of medium voltage (MV) lines (22kV/33kV), 350 km of low voltage (LV) lines and 768 distribution transformers to its network. Currently, LEC has 376km of 66KV-HV lines; 667km of 22kV-MV lines; 262km of 33kV-MV lines; 1312km of LV distribution lines and 3341 distribution transformers. All of this has been achieved through the tremendous support of our partners, particularly the World Bank, EU, AfDB and KW. Grid coverage now extends over Montserrado, Bomi, Cape Mount and Margibi counties. Franchise arrangements cover Maryland, River Gee, Grand Gedeh, Nimba, and Bong counties,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the outgoing LEC boss said since the inception of power import from CIE/CI Energies through the CLSG Transmission line, LEC has been billed US$32,499,334 for energy imported, of which the amount of US $27,116,114 has been paid as of October 2024 leaving an outstanding balance of US$5,383,224.
He said LEC has also been billed by Transco CLSG a total of US$9,425,267 for transmission charges, of which US$8,314,034 has been paid, leaving an outstanding balance of US$1,111,233. “As of September 30, 2024, the balance on the Cross-Border HTA legacy debt was US$10,672,550 and this amount is owed CIE in part by the Government of Liberia, and the operators of the distribution networks in Nimba, Bong, Maryland, Grand Gedeh and River Gee Counties. This debt was rescheduled over a three-year payment period agreed with the Ivorian authorities,” he said.
