For the first time in more than 25 years, Mt Coffee is generating clean, renewable hydropower with the completion of the first of four generating units. The first hydropower turbine and generator unit, with an installed capacity of 22 megawatts (MW), was officially dedicated and commissioned on Thursday, December 15, 2016, at the project site in Harrisburg by the President of the Republic of Liberia, Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Other dignitaries attending the program were the Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway, the Commissioner for Africa of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs of the U.S. Government. When the project is completed, Mt. Coffee Hydropower Plant will have a total installed capacity of 88 MW (four generating units of 22 MW each).

With the completion of the first unit (which is now going through various testing stages) the project is now over 80% completed with the target for overall project completion set for August 2017. This means that by this time next year, all four turbines will be installed and connected by high-voltage transmission lines to both the LEC Bushrod Substation and Paynesville Substation. The December 15, 2016 milestone is hailed as an achievement because it signifies that all the major systems of the hydropower plant, dam, spillway, substation, and one transmission line have been completed, enabling the turning on of power for the first time in so many years.

The challenge the Liberia Electricity Corporation has set for itself over the next eight months is to increase distribution lines and customer connections in Monrovia and its environs so that the Mt. Coffee plant’s full potential can be realized. Currently, the peak power demanded by LEC’s existing customer base is just 18 MW, which is less than the potential of one generating unit of the Mt. Coffee plant. LEC is planning to connect not only additional residential customers throughout Monrovia but also large commercial and industrial users to rapidly increase the demand.

The transmission line that has been built between the Mt. Coffee plant and the Bushrod Substation, and the transmission line that is currently under construction between Mt. Coffee and the Paynesville Substation, each have a rated voltage of 66 kilovolts, which is the same as LEC`s other high-voltage transmission lines that form a ring around Monrovia. //

Rehabilitation of the Mt. Coffee Hydropower Plant was proposed as an important part of the national reconstruction efforts led by H.E. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2011. //

According to statistics, only about 7% of Liberians have access to electricity today, and the price of electricity is still among the highest in the world due, until recently, to LECs total reliance on high-speed modular diesel generation. LEC has made remarkable strides in increasing its generation capacity during 2016, including installation of an additional capacity of 38 MW of heavy fuel oil generation (LECs first 10 MW of HFO generation was commissioned in late 2015 by President Sirleaf).

Now that LEC has begun operating its thermal plants on heavy fuel oil, and now that the first turbine at Mt. Coffee is sending hydro-powered current into the LEC system, LECs generating costs are expected to be reduced. It is anticipated that LEC will be able to announce a reduced tariff in the new year due to these improvements in LECs generating sources. //

The budget for the Mt. Coffee project is just under a U.S. Dollar equivalent of $357 million, which includes the main construction contracts for the generating equipment, hydraulic steelworks, dam and civil works, road works, substations at Mt. Coffee and in Monrovia, 50 kilometers of high-voltage transmission lines, the workers’ camp, and engineering and construction supervision; environmental and social safeguards activities; and multi-year training of Liberians both in country and overseas for the operation and maintenance of the Mt. Coffee Hydropower Plant.