By: Austine Luseni
Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay has on behalf of the President, His Excellency Dr Julius Maada Bio, his ministry and management of EDSA, commissioned a new 410kv transformer at the Yams Farm Community in rural Freetown.
The Yams Farm Community is a strategic community along the Freetown-Waterloo Highway.The community continues to expand in size and with this expansion comes an accompanying increase in demand for electricity. Residents in the community only had to depend on a 110kv energy supply which was grossly inadequate. There was therefore a serious electricity challenge in the area.
It was with a view to solving this acute shortage of electricity in the area that the minister of energy decided to provide a 410kv transformer, which is three times heavier and larger in capacity than the one the community was relying on. This commissioned transformer will help de-load electricity supply and make it reliably accessible to over fifteen thousand residents.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the minister of energy underscored the crucial importance of the Yams Farm Community and went on to say that the Government was always thinking about them. He said the temporary transformation of the military Peace Mission Training Centre into a Covid 19 Treatment Centre, meant that steps were to be taken to ensure that the centre and by extension the entire community enjoy uninterrupted electricity supply. Mr Sesay promised that the supply of electricity in the area will from now on be sustainable and reliable, adding also that the commissioning of the transformer was his ministry’s contribution to the fight against the Covid 19.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Energy, Hon. Kekura Vandi and the Officer-in-Charge of the Peace Mission Training Centre, Brigadier-General Abubakarr Conteh spoke on the crucial relevance of electricity and assured that security will be provided for the major installation.
Residents expressed appreciation and promised the minister that they would own the transformer and do everything to protect it.
The minister and his team continue to make gradual but remarkable breakthroughs in the energy reformation drive.
