President Adama Barrow of the Republic of The Gambia has inaugurated the country’s first national high-voltage transmission line linked to a national control centre and a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) after 60 years of the country’s independence.
The 225kV high-voltage transmission line was executed by the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines and National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) under the Transmission and Distribution Modernisation Component of The Gambia Electricity Restoration and Modernisation.
The project was funded by the World Bank Group, European Union, and the European Investment Bank.
Speaking at the inauguration of the project, President Adama Barrow said his administration recognising the crucial role energy plays in a country’s development and modernisation had, since 2017, strategically prioritised and hugely invested in the energy sector.
He said for the past eight years the commitment and investment in the sector had yielded high dividends, adding that “we now enjoy more stable power supply compared to the past.”
He stated that the investment in the energy sector would continue relentlessly until the whole country has access to uninterrupted, affordable, and sustainable power supply in line with the Strategic Electricity Roadmap (2021-2040) of The Gambia.
“Since attaining independence in 1965, our transmission network was limited to thirty-three (33) Kilo Volts. As I speak, this has been modernised and upgraded to two hundred and twenty-five (225) Kilo Volts.
“This makes the occasion very historic indeed,” he said cheerfully.
President Adama Barrow said the project would transform the country’s power supply system from an analogue system to a digital system.
He added that it would also make the power supply system much more robust and resilient, thus enhancing efficient communications and operation of the network.
As the project lays the foundation for a national electricity grid, it would also facilitate efficient transmission of huge volumes of power from one end of the country to another.
In view of the completion of this project, the President said “the country now has to work on the Eastern backbone to complete the national grid. Already, the feasibility study of this phase is now complete.”
“Another very important benefit of this project is that it will inter-connect the country’s power supply system with the OMVG power transmission network and, eventually, with the larger West African Power Pool network,” he added.
He said the project would enable The Gambia to export or import power from any country within the West African Power Pool.
Touching on other benefits of the project, President Adama Barrow said it would further improve the country’s energy security system and create the opportunity to access the least costly power generation hubs within the ECOWAS subregion.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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