Energy Reformation
By: Austine Luseni
Communications Specialist
Ministry of Energy
Contact : 077377042/034157390
Bo/ Yormandu,Southern Sierra Leone , Friday 21 August, 2020— Almost a month after delivering the second consignment of materials for the Bo/Kenema Network Rehabilitation and Expansion Project at the airfields in Bo and Kenema and at the warehouse at Yormandu, Minister of Energy,Alhaji Kanja Sesay, has today delivered the third consignment of materials lodged in some thirty-six (36)40ft containers.
While delivering the third consignment of materials, Alhaji Kanja Sesay noted that he was pleased to inform the people of the two cities about the desire of President Bio to ensure that the power situation in the two cities was permanently settled. He furthered that the electricity situation in the two cities had worsened to such an extent that many a people had lost hope. Mr. Sesay however maintained that the President ,Vice President and himself had on different visits urged the people to show patience since they as a Government wanted to find a permanent solution to the problem.
The Minister of Energy said that he had brought some 36 containers of materials for the project ,noting that 16 of those containers had decontainerized at the warehouse at Yormandu. He said this new consignment comprises LV cables and accessories. Mr Sesay noted that the project had already begun with the mobilization of materials, while promising that actual physical civil works and subterranean and overhead cabling, which are the two components of the project,would commence after the rains-preferably in September.He assured the people of the two cities that the labour force for the project would be drawn from locals or residents of Bo and Kenema.
Mr Sesay spoke about the desire of the President to increase access to energy, adding that some few weeks ago, he was in the district headquarter towns of Kabala,Kambia,Moyamba and Kailahun to sign contracts for the township electrification project .He said the Government had surpassed the 16% access rate to electricity supply and that the current record would be bettered once the various projects were completed .
General Project Coordinator in the Ministry of Energy,Ing. Dr. Edmund Wuseni, maintained that the Covid 19 had triggered a change in the implementation plan of the project . He stated that new areas or settlements that were not part of the original project design have now been incorporated.
Ing. Dr. Wuseni assured that the existing 33kv line would have its poles and cables changed to make it possible for towns along the Bo-Kenema Highway like Jembe,Blama,Yormandu and Gerihun to be electrified. He concluded by saying that another 66kv line would be connected to the CLSG line to enable towns like Bandajuma, Koribondo, Pujehun,Sumbuya, Baima,Njala,Mano Daseh and others in the south to be electrified, while towns in the east like Hangha,Mano,Segbwema,Daru,Mobai,Padembu and others would also benefit from the Bandama component.
Project Manager, Sinotec, Mrs Zheng and Resident Manager, T&D Solutions Limited, Pawan Kumar, spoke about the scope and nature of their jobs, with T&D having Lot One which involves building six 33 kv substations, and Sinotec having Lot Two which involves 700 kilometers of LV work in Bo and Kenema and in six villages along the highway. Mrs. Zheng said that the project would make use of some 176 different types of transformers, adding that the contract period is eighteen months . She assured that by August next year ,the project would have been completed .
The Bo-Kenema Network Rehabilitation and Expansion Project will surely solve the issue of perennial electricity agonies for the people of the two cities and would also increase access to energy in line with the vision of the New Direction.
