Amidst the growing wave of demand for community’s electrification, the Liberia Accelerated Electricity Expansion Project-additional Financing (LACEEP-AF), through the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), with support from the World Bank, has turned over 31 installed transformers and light-poles to several communities across electoral districts #11 and #13 in Montserrado County with the objective of creating easy access to affordable and reliable energy supply.
Over five thousand beneficiaries in Barnersville, Tusa Field and New Georgia Communities amongst others, are currently benefiting electricity from the World Bank-LACEEP-AF Funded project which is being implemented by an engineering company MBH Power Limited, through the Liberia Electricity CoIt followed the installation of thirty-one transformers and distribution of 5,048 meters in the two districts aimed at addressing some of the growing challenges being experience by residents in accessing the national electricity grid.
Speaking at the handover ceremony of the transformers to LEC management on Wednesday, March 30, LEC-World Bank Project Supervisor, Mr. Ezekiel Sampson said, the project is aimed at increasing citizens’ access to the national power grid.
He added that it will also decrease criminal rate and enable residents of the areas to move about smoothly.
Mr. Sampson disclosed that additional funding has been secured for the extension of the project to other parts of Monrovia.
“The World Bank is one of our biggest implementing partners that gives support to the Liberia Electricity Corporation. There are plans to extend to other communities and counties. As we speak, additional funding has been approved and signed,” Sampson asserted.
He noted that procurement and other formalities are ongoing to begin the project as soon as possible.
Turning the transformers over to LEC and the community earlier, MBH project Engineer, Christian Fiagbezi, said MBH has done its portion and it is now left with LEC and the community for use and effective management.
“We have done with the MV/LV network and we are handing it over to LEC and the community to ensure it is effectively managed. We carried out assessment which showed that we only needed 31 transformers,” Fiagbezi disclosed.
The transformers are expected to last for over twenty-five years if effectively and properly managed without no load growth.
He said in the instance where there is load growth, LEC will need to upgrade the transformers to meet the customers’ demands.
Mr. Fiagbezi explained that the transformers are durable enough to serve the communities if the residents decide to protect the transformers by ensuring that power theft is curtailed.
For his part, LEC Bushrod Feeder Base Business Unit Electrical Engineer, Ben Fomba, said the installation of the transformers is a milestone for LEC and residents of the community.
“This is going to make us generate more revenue to increase our power generation if our customers will be sincere enough.”
He, at the same time called on the community to help protect the transformers. Mr. Fomba thanked the World Bank and MBH for the project and promised that LEC will do everything possible in terms of maintenance.
The Secretary General of JJY community, Thomas J. Kamara, expressed gratitude to LEC, MBH and the World Bank for the initiative.
“We have been suffering as a result of darkness, criminal rate on the increase and we believed that the provision of electricity is a great help – we don’t know how to even thank LEC and her partners, we are grateful.”
Mr. Kamara further said,” we have put in place a mechanism that will somehow decrease power theft because we don’t have the full capacity to stop power theft, but what we can promise LEC and others is that, we will try to limit it by educating our people.”
The JJY Community Secretary General added that the leadership of the community has begun a rigorous sensitization campaign to ensure that residents of the area serve as ambassadors to prevent power theft.
He maintained that the house-to-house campaign is gradually yielding fruitful result as there has been no sign of power theft in the community.
Mr. Kamara said anyone caught will be reported to the LEC and the Liberia National Police for prosecution.
According to him, since the installation of transformers and subsequent electrification of their communities, criminal rate which was on the Increase, has drastically reduced. “The places used to be dark, but for now, we see lights all over, so we appreciate LEC in collaboration with World Bank.”
Meanwhile, the Community Secretary General has vowed that as a means of taking ownership of the project, they will also monitor power theft operations.
Mr. Kamara further disclosed that “power theft reduces the load weight for legitimate users; we will monitor that also as a way of ensuring our community protection.”
Despite the low water shortage LEC is experiencing at the Mount Coffee Hydro Power plant, the management has affirmed its commitment to its primary objective aimed at expanding electricity to thousands of new customers through its donor founded projects across Monrovia and its environs.
At the same time, the LEC Management is rigorously involved with mass connections in communities under the Normalization Process which seeks to cover up the gaps with households that are not connected to the national electricity grid. The requirement under which one can obtains a meter through the Normalization Process are as follows: one should obtain a valid identification card, phone number, and place of location and must be a resident of said community.
Whereas, customers who are recruited under the Normalization process benefit a free Meter Installation for electricity and will only have to provide the necessary information to the LEC Customer Service Center for registration. The Customer Normalization process is being implemented by the LEC in collaboration with the community leadership.
