The Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) is expected to erect a hydro plant in Bong Mines, lower Bong County.
This project will be 150 megawatts stronger and is aimed at reaching electricity to places still lacking it, having already assessed the site.
The Chairperson of the LEC Board of Directors, Monie Captan, recently told the media that the 150 megawatt plant will be bigger than the Mount Coffee Hydro Plant which has 88 megawatts and is now the major source of electricity in the country.
He disclosed that all the power being used currently comes from the hydro, and as such, the construction of another hydro plant would help address the issue of electricity in Liberia.
Captan also announced that the corporation is ready and about to provide electricity to the Robert International Airport (RIA) and the entire corridor leading to the airport.
He added that there are two substations of LEC which are being built in Margibi County that are going to adequately provide electricity to that part of the country. “The only reason we are not on right now is because of the delay caused by the road construction. Otherwise, we would already be operational,” he quipped.
Captan is positive that Liberians are about to enjoy electricity because of all the encouraging mechanisms currently being put into place to prepare for the future. He believes the entity is the key gateway to economic growth in Liberia.
He highlighted that before investors come to any country, they firstly assess the issue of electricity, stressing that no company, factory, and restaurant would like to run on generators because of the high cost of alternative electricity.
These firms, factories, restaurants, and other entities heavily rely on electricity to adequately function, stating that this has been one of the reasons investors have not been pouring in the country en masse, as no investor would come into a country where there is scarcity of energy which plays an essential role in commodity production.
Additionally, he claimed that the LEC will not run out of meters in the next three years once the government gets what it has procured already.
“There are about 300 thousand meters being procured, and a further 100 thousand meters en route to Liberia. LEC prioritizes meters because it is very important and wants each household to have access to meters,” Captan noted.
He informed the public that the LEC has drastically clamped down on power theft, citing that the reduction in illegal activity has dropped from 50 to 30 percent as he called on Liberians to exercise their civic duty by honestly availing themselves for the purchasing of meters.
The boss also disclosed that the entity is edging closer to the average range of 25 percent which he described as the first accomplishment for the war against power theft, saying that if power theft is reduced to the aforementioned percentage, it would boost the sustainability and maintenance of the biggest provider of energy in the country.
He pointed out that there were 17,000 customers connected during the special operation of the Anti-Power Theft Task Force, stating that there is a huge growth of LEC’s customers.
“Despite all the challenges we have and with the support of the government, I can tell you that the President has put electricity high on his agenda. Since we took over, we have provided transformers to communities that did not have transformers or communities that had damaged transformers. It is a very expensive exercise; a transformer is not a light bulb,” the LEC official said.
He said that the rebuilding of LEC requires all hands on deck because the entity is not a foreign one, so he passionately advised all Liberians to join in this fight because it will benefit the country by making a significant economic progression.
He described LEC as the agent of change which has provided a huge opportunity for the citizenry and also more tourist appeal for potential investors.
“If we don’t bring power theft under control, LEC will collapse because we can’t continue to provide electricity when we have most people stealing the current and you expect us to buy wires, meters, and transformers? I don’t think we should solely depend on power theft law to protect us; we should also use our own conscience to protect the LEC,” he asserted.
Upon taking office at the LEC, Captan said they firstly ventured into assessing what could be the major problem of the entity, revealing that the issue of meters was key and is the main reason people used to connect to the electrical grid illegally.
Against this backdrop, he revealed that he and his team immediately embarked on the provision of meters as a means of reducing power theft.
LEC, under a Liberian management, according to Captan, has made huge progress over the years, naming the reduction of power theft, provision of transformers and meters and further noting that since the foundation of the LEC, no management has bought meters on its own, but under the current management, 6000 meters have been brought in on government expense.
“We (Liberians) can run LEC, and we can do a good job if we are given the opportunity. And even if I were to ask all of you here how the past dry season was in terms of stability of electricity, I’m sure the feedback wouldn’t be too bad as regards load-shedding compared to previous years. And that is because we planned for the dry season, and we will continue to plan because LEC is growing on a daily basis,” he concluded.
