By Mabinty M. Kamara
The government of Sierra Leone says it has terminated the contract between it and the management of the Turkish company, Karadeniz Energy Group, owners of the Karpowership 2 and that the latter is therefore set to depart on the 11th September 2020.
In June 2018, Karpowership signed a contract with the Sierra Leone national utility company, Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA), Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance to deploy a Powership to supply 30 MW for 7 months and 15 MW for 5 months, for a period of 3 years. The First Powership “Karadeniz Powership Doğan Bey” has been in operation in Kroo Town Bay / Freetown since June 2018.
However, in December 2018, an Addendum Agreement was signed to increase the capacity to 50 MW for 7 months and 30 MW for 5 months, which was labeled the Second Powership “Karadeniz Powership Göktay Bey”, which was deployed to Cline Town area in Freetown for the same period of the contract signed in June 2018. The Second Powership (KPS2) started operation in Cline Town in March 2019.
The government’s statement on Monday said the power generating company was contracted in the first place because of the challenges that the Authority was faced with in evacuating more power from the Kingtom 161 sub-station to its Black Hall Road substation in the east end of Freetown for the supply of electricity to residents in the eastern part of the capital. It assured the public that the absence of the KPS2 will not in any way affect the current flow of electricity within the city.
“The public should however note that the problem associated with the evacuation of more power from Kingtom to Black Hall Road has been resolved. Against this backdrop, the Authority would like to assure the public that the departure of KPS 2 will not in any way cause any interruption to the smooth supply of electricity in the capital. The Karpower 1 and the Bumbuna Hydro 1 will be in full operation with a view of matching demand,” the statement reads.
Austine Lusaini, Communication Specialist attached to Ministry of Energy, told Politico that the government decided to opt for KPS2 because it was difficult to evacuate power from Kingtom in the West to the East as there were some underlying cables that needed to be connected.
“And now we have connected all those underlying cables. [They] have passed through to Cline Town. If you look around, we have been on that for two-three weeks ago. So we thought it fit that there is no need for us to have a Karpowership 2, because the one itself generates about 50 megawatts and now Bumbuna gives us 20 megawatts in the dries. So when that sums up, we have about 70 megawatts,” Lusaini explained.
He went on: “So if you combine Karpower 1 and 2, it will give us just 50 megawatts, but with this one, we have 70megawatts. So this is more expanded than the previous one. So to say that light will be intermittent because of the absence of Karpower 2 is not correct. In fact, we will have more power,” he said.
Lusaini added that the issues of low voltage has to do with the fact that most of the communities have expanded both in terms of population and appliances with high voltages and that the cables have over the years become old, hence efficient power supply becomes a challenge in those communities.
However, he said that with the World Bank funded Energy Sector Utility Reform Project, they have been overhauling those aged cables across Freetown.
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