The Management of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) says load shedding schedules will be managed hourly and daily in response to peaks in energy consumption.
The management said the network peak load has increased from an average load of 55MW to as high as 73.2MW during the evening hours and therefore inform its customers and the public that this is so because energy consumption has increased significantly thus impacting the supply of available energy.
Therefore, and in order to meet the needs of all customers, the LEC said it has become necessary to institute limited load shedding and that
LEC contracted 27MW from CI Energies of La Cote d’Ivoire to help compensate for its energy supply deficit, which represents the maximum allocation available to each CLSG country.
As a result of the increase in energy demand, LEC has exceeded its allocation from CI Energies.
CI Energies informed the LEC that it cannot provide additional energy at this time because of limited energy supply and furthermore, energy supplied from Mt. Coffee hydropower plant has declined due to low water levels.
In addition to the 27MW supplied by CI Energies, LEC said it can generate up to 18.5MW from Mt. Coffee, depending on water inflow, and has additional installed thermal generation capacity of 28MW.
The LEC said it will meet a demand of approximately 50MW this dry season, compared to the 14MW supplied during the last dry season and therefore it is expected that load shedding will be limited in scope and duration, lasting until the return of the rainy season in June 2023.
LEC urges its customers to conserve energy and turn off appliances and lights when not in use, especially during the evening hours when consumption is exceedingly high and stated that energy conservation by consumers will reduce the energy demand and the level of load shedding.
The Management of LEC assures its customers that additional supply of electricity is planned for the next dry season to address the perennial problem of energy supply deficit in the dry season.
LEC therefore expresses its appreciation to its customers for their understanding and cooperation.
