The Liberia Electricity Cooperation (LEC) has disclosed that as of October 31, 2024, the Government of Liberia owes the corporation US $18,975,049 for power consumption.
Speaking Wednesday, November 27, 2024 in Monrovia, LEC Chief Executive Officer Monie Captan, at a press conference ahead of the expiration of his contract, said the government is the largest consumer of the electricity supplied by LEC, which accounts for approximately 14% of all energy sold.
Captan said the LEC management and the Board of Directors have engaged the government through the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to ensure that beginning 2025, budgetary allocations will be made to pay for the energy consumption of each government entity through prepay metering service.
According to him, the payment of energy bills by the government will improve LEC’s capacity to pay for energy imports and the maintenance of its electrical network, thus improving service delivery to the general public.
Meanwhile, owing to the high cost of thermal energy and its negative impact on climate change, LEC has planned its future energy generation development on a transition from fossil-fuel-based thermal to renewable energy, with solar and hydropower as its priority sources.
He said the rainy and dry seasons provide a good opportunity for hybridization of solar and hydro, thus optimizing the supply of power from renewable sources.
“As you are aware, three out of the four turbines at Mt. Coffee are operational, with one unit out of operation due to a fire outbreak in the stator unit. We have been successful in obtaining financing of $5.5m through the World Bank LESSAP project for the repair of the unit,” he said.
He said the construction of a 20 Megawatts solar power plant at Mt. Coffee has commenced and will be concluded by October 2025, costing US$16,000,000 financed through the World Bank under the RESPITE Project.
He said financing in the amount of US$62, 000,000 for the expansion of Mt. Coffee Hydropower Plant by the addition of 2-4 turbines has also been approved under the World Bank RESPITE Project.
According to him, engineering and design works are ongoing along with the preparation of bidding documents.
He said the LEC has already purchased 100 acres of land near its substation on the RIA Highway for this project, a Letter of Intent has been signed with the final contract under discussion and will need to be finalized between LEC and SCATEC.
Captan said that plans for a new hydro dam is one of the priority energy investments of the government along the St. Paul River upstream of the Mt. Coffee dam.
According to him, the project will cost approximately US$700million and will include an access road from Bong Mines to the project site, a substation, transmission lines from the project site to Mt. Coffee and an operators’ camp.
Based on negotiations with development partners, additional commitment for 50% financing of SP2 has been made by the World Bank.
“In late September of this year, I was opportune to travel to Luxembourg to the Headquarters of the European Investment Bank (EIB) where I met with officials of EIB about financing SP2.
“I am pleased to report that our meeting with the ElB and the EU was very productive with strong interest expressed for the co-financing of the project,” he said.
Captan said when all these projects are successfully implemented, LEC can expect to increase its installed generation capacity from 126MW to 412.5MW, thus strengthening Liberia’s energy sovereignty.
By Lucky M. McGee
