By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Sierra Leone has a population of just over 7 million and just over 1 million people in the country have access to electricity in the country. This number stands for 16% of the population. This is according to World Bank’s current estimation.
Some 57 years since independence the country still depends on old and battered thermal machines and an overstretched network supply and distribution facility across the country to provide electricity.
How bad is the situation?
Sierra Leone has one of the lowest electricity access in the world. Its main power network consists of 161kV radial single circuit transmission line. This has the capacity of just 70MW. All other circuit capacities across the country will amount to just around150MW.
These small networks across the country have been overwhelmed by the demand for electricity.
Like water, electricity is a right. But in Sierra Leone this right is not guaranteed by the constitution and therefore it is not binding on the government to provide them for its citizens.
Township
A huge chunk of the 16% who get access to electricity are those living in the capital, Freetown. Major towns like Bo, Makeni, Kenema, and Port Loko have also benefitted in the last two decades. But the situation remains terribly desperate.
In September last year, President Julius Maada Bio expressed the desire of Sierra Leone to the world to get out of this bad situation by turning to renewable energy.
“My Government’s target of 60% renewable energy capacity by 2030 is practicable specially to generate growth in rural areas. Our country, like most developing countries, has been on the expensive and dirty liquid fuel treadmill since independence,” said President Bio at the United Nations General Assembly, 2018.
The government is currently funding a very expensive quick fix solution; the Karpowership. The Turkish company provides electricity for Freetown through two separate ships. This expensive fix reflects on consumers through very high tariff rates.
But the country’s economic state cannot allow it to spend that much on electricity. Even though the government is not generating all the money to pay the power ship, it is losing heavily on subsidy and taxes.
The ships have been efficient, but that hasn’t stopped the erratic power supply pattern. Whiles the power ship produces its required watt, EDSA’s weak system distributes it.
The problem only gets worse because there is a growing demand for electricity.
Figures from EDSA show that customers increased from 175,315 in April 2018 to 195,094 in March 2019. This is an 11% increase in just a year.
Solar is the future
As a result of all the trouble associated with thermal energy sources, there is now a conscious effort to turn to a viable alternative. And renewable energy is the future. Government’s effort has been driven by two reasons; firstly, renewable energy is cheap and with it access to electricity can be increased.
The need for this is urgent, considering the growing demand for electricity across the country.
There are many forms of renewable energy: solar, hydro, biomass, geo-thermal and many others.
For Sierra Leone the feature is solar; the country gets up to six months of sunshine every year. To tap into this is easy.
Head of Electricity at Electricity and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC), Kelcise Sesay, said: “Solar is the cheapest option. Even though we have massive hydro potential, it takes a long time to build a hydro system.”
EWRC said they are in line with the Ministry of Energy’s commitment to provide universal access to electricity. They are doing this through rural electrification.
“For now, while projects are being approved and discussed we are looking at making sure that rural communities get access to electricity through small solar mini-grids.”
Through the Rural Renewable Electrification Project, the United Nations Office for Project Services on behalf of the UK government has completed the building of 54 mini-grid solar systems in Sierra Leone. Some 40 more will be built in the coming months.
“We are looking at completing this process in the next month or two then we will tell the mini-grid operators to switch on their systems,” Sesay said.
By EWRC’s projection, rural areas around the country could get electricity as early as September 2019. This might not significantly raise the number of people who have electricity in the country. However, it is a progress.
The situation could get even better in the coming days, the Director of Renewable Energy, Robin Mansaray, said they have more than 100 applications from solar companies who want to come into the country.
“We have signed more than 60 MOUs with solar companies and more are still coming,” he said.
And there are more projects in the pipeline dedicated to increasing the renewable energy sources in the country.
The pitfalls
But all is not rosy. The bottleneck to all of this is the weak capacity of the generation and supply network. Mansaray said this is a challenge that might seriously affect all this progress.
“Even with all these companies you are seeing, we don’t have a network. Our network system is weak and old. Most of it were damaged during the war and haven’t fully been repaired,” he lamented.
However, this will not affect the newly connected solar mini-grid systems, since they have a different and new wiring, generating and supply system.
Just last week the World Bank gave the government $50 million credit to improve the network system in the urban areas. So, things could change.
Cost is also a concern. Electricity in Sierra Leone is expensive.
Umu Barrie, a shop owner at Aberdeen Road, spends sometimes up to Le200,000 ($22) a month on electricity.
“I buy Le100, 000 ($11) of units for my shop every month. Sometimes I have to buy the same amount twice a month,” she said.
“The only appliance I have is a bulb and my freezer.”
Complaints like these are frequent in urban towns like Freetown. But this might not suit the rural areas.
Economic activities are very low in most rural communities.
Sesay said EWRC has been in constant touch with communities to determine tariff prices.
“After we have consulted these communities on the tariff, our team of economist will then arrive at a final value for the tariff,” he said.
Currently, access to electricity in most rural areas in the country is a privilege. Electricity is tied to symbol and status in these areas and this should not be the case.
The argument for renewable energy is too compelling to ignore. Achieving universal access to electricity as stated by Goal 7 of the Sustainable Development Goals is tied with economic growth and human development.
On the path to growth, Sierra Leone must make sure it beats it age old problem - blackout. Its strategy in this fight should be to invest in a much cheaper form of energy, which in turn will increase access. This will be a double win.
© 2019 Politico Online
