Sierra Leone News: Govt Explores Alternative Source of Energy
By MoE Comm. Unit.
As the country’s energy situation continues to be challenged with a very low electrification rate of 15 percent nationwide and high cost of power purchase from Independent Power Producers (IPPs); the Government of President Julius Maada Bio’s is exploring every avenue for an affordable and sustainable energy for all.
It is against this backdrop that the Minister of Energy signed an unsolicited Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on April 4, 2019, with China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) consortium which led to the invitation of the Hon. Minister including a seven-man delegation to Sri Lanka that was approved by President on July 25, 2019.
The main objective of the mission was to visit the 3x300mw Lakvijava Coal Power Plant, the largest energy investment in Sri Lanka and to provide our Technical Team insight regarding the proposed 150mw clean coal power plant as to its suitability for adoption in Sierra Leone.
The New Direction government has prioritized energy, and is working to ensure that over 80% of the population has access to electricity by 2030.
Despite the intervention of partners to increase access to electricity through the utilization of renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar PV, and hydro power in the energy mix, their sustainability is seasonal in nature and the current state of the national grid would be a limiting factor for any appreciable impact.
Hence, the government is challenged with a state-owned based load generating asset devoid of seasonality.
In a bid to meet the agenda of the New Direction for energy security and increase access to electricity, the government is seeking ways to achieve improved power generation and T & D network that is adequate, reliable and free from seasonality. As part of the strategy to achieve this Agenda, Government intends amongst other options to explore the possibility of acquiring a clean coal fired-power generation facility that would be state-owned and capable of providing a high quality and sustainable solution for base-load generation in a timely manner.
Areas visited by the Minister of Energy and his entourage included coal fired power plant at Lakvijava which contains selection of type of coal (specified type of coal), coal handling process (specify), boiler design (sp), flue gas cleaning process and water system. Fruitful discussions were held with key stakeholders and counterparts in Sri Lanka.
