By Sallieu S. Kanu
A team from the World Bank with the Minister of Energy l, Dr. Eldred Taylor and technical personnel from the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) on Saturday, July 13, 2024, conducted an assessment on the status of the project dedicated to upgrading the Freetown network from 11KV to 33KV under the Energy Sector Utility Reform Project, ESURP.
This project, which is funded by the World Bank, aims to enhance the efficient evacuation of electricity from substations to different parts of the city. The upgrade of the lines will enable power to be evacuated from the Kingtom 161 substation to Waterloo in the far east on the one hand and to Goderich in the far west on the other hand.
“The Energy Sector Utility Reform Project covers six substations. With the substations at Kingtom and Falcon Bridge having already been energized, plans are now underway to energize the Aberdeen and Jui substations,” said Dr. Taylor.
He said the government is determined to ensure the speedy completion of the project and was sparing no efforts in making that known to the contractors.
“Once the upgrade is fully done. The issues of load shedding and low voltage will be addressed,” the Deputy Minister concluded.
The objective of the Energy Sector Utility Reform Project for Sierra Leone is to improve the operational performance of the national electricity distribution utility. There are three components to the project, the first component being distribution utility capacity enhancement and performance improvement. This component will support the establishment of a fully functioning and effective national electricity distribution utility (utility) through a three-year performance-based contract for utility operation and management between the utility and a competitively selected firm (contractor) specialized in management of power utilities in developing countries. The second component is the improvement of electricity supply in urban areas. This component will support an extensive investment program targeting the rehabilitation and upgrade of the national distribution network from 33 kV to the low voltage level as a first step to improve the quality and reliability of electricity supply. Investments financed under the project will contribute to increasing the transmission capacity of the system, as well as to improving service quality and reducing technical losses in electricity distribution by upgrading infrastructure in line with demand requirements, thereby decreasing the frequency and duration of outages at the customer level. Finally, the third component is the sector planning assistance, project implementation support and monitoring and evaluation.