Sierra Leone Government to Review Karpowership Agreement
Mohamed Foday Conteh The Government of Sierra Leone is set to review the deal struck with Turkish energy company, Karadeniz Karpowership.
The new agreement will follow amid massive blackout in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown for more than a week now.
The floating energy company is supplying about 60 megawatts of electricity to Freetown and its environs but operation was put on a hiatus due to a 46 million US Dollar debt.
The country’s Energy Minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay told Reuters days ago that government subsidises nearly a quarter of cost per kilowatt-hour charged by the ship.
Meanwhile, there are indications that the government together with the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority are currently reviewing a possible reduction in electricity tariffs per purchase.
They said this is due to the fact that the country’s currency, Leone is struggling to match the US Dollar in which the contract with Karpowership was signed.
The ship was brought by the erstwhile government of Ernest Bai Koroma as secondary option to supply electricity to Sierra Leone’s expanding capital city but more than five years since its arrival the ship has continued to be a significant source of energy for the country.
Sierra Leone currently operates an hydro dam at Tonkolili and also imports energy from Ivory Coast. The other two sources of power appears insufficient at current as the capital continues to experience intermittent power cuts for over a week now.