By Mabinty M. Kamara
The long-awaited energy supply from the inter-connection line of the West Africa Power Pool Project finally reached Sierra Leone’s energy thirst capital, Freetown last week.
This according to the Engineer in charge was after synchronizing both the Bumbuna and the Transco-CLSG substations located in Bumbuna town, thereby now providing energy supply directly to Freetown from the Transco-CLSG substation.
Speaking to Politico, the Transco-CLSG Country Manager, who is also the engineer in charge of the project, Paul Charles Saffa said that the current electricity supply in Freetown is powered by the project.
“Actually it is the Transco power that is in Freetown at the moment because Karpowership has been down and they are doing maintenance on the Bumbuna hydropower. So Transco has been stepping in to give power to Freetown and the operation is a success,” he said.
The project involves a power transmission line of 225 KW running through 1,303 Kilometres with 11 substations across the four countries for which Liberia will have four stations, Guinea two, and Sierra Leone five, one each in Kenema (Tiloma), Kono (Binkongor), Bumbuna, Fadugu (Yiben) and Kamakwie. Three of these substations have already been completed according to Saffa, with the power stations in Kamakwe and Yeben that he said will be completed by December this year, confirming that the transmission lines were already done. This development will also connect the northern part of the country to the interconnection line. Ivory Coast is the project host.
The power station in Kenema which currently supply power to the South-Eastern cities of Bo and Kenema was commissioned in December last year by President Julius Maada Bio.
The West Africa Power Pool Project aims to provide electricity to the four Mano River Union countries of Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Guinea. When completed, it will bring reliable and affordable electricity to the countries which have had a perennial problem with electricity, especially outside their capitals.
A brief public notice attributed to the Management of Sierra Leone’s Utility company, the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) states that the Authority now has three (3) sources of power generation: “(Karpowership, Bumbuna, and TRANSCO), which will certainly reduce on load shedding activity and would also compensate for any unforeseen drop in power generation from either of our power producers”.
EDSA has over the last months received criticisms from residents of Freetown over the increase in tariffs, and the quality of electricity supplied which has mostly been described as epileptic with some areas marred by low voltage amidst unconfirmed reports of the Turkish Karpowership withholding services due to huge debts owed them. However, the Ministry of Finance was quick to dismiss the news, assuring that the company will continue its operations.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (15/07/22)
