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Hundreds of consumers of the government owned solar powered mini grid in Sahn Malen Chiefdom Pujehun District have expressed frustration in what they referred to as “the failure of PowerGen Company” to give them consistent and sustainable electricity supply.
PowerGen is a solar energy company the Rural Renewable Energy Project was outsourced to in 2021 by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) through the Ministry of Energy. The company is responsible for the day to day running of the facility.
Sahn Malen is one of the 94 chiefdom headquarters across Sierra Leone that benefited from the mini-grid project. More than 400 houses in the township according to the company are connected to the grid.
Life became a bed of roses for most subscribers of the service especially those in the business sector when the grid was initially commissioned in mid-2021. Traders saw their businesses grew at a faster rate. The town became very lively as cinemas, nightclubs, restaurants and bars all were all booming.
However, this did not last longer as expected. The community started experiencing power outage at the beginning of 2022 and the problem has remained so till date. The entire township is now in unending darkness thus leading to the collapse of entertainment activities.
Mohamed Kengo is one of the affected consumers. He runs a stationary shop that does printing, photocopying and laminating services. Kengo has resolved to close down his stationary shop because he is not getting electricity despite having enough top up in his pre-paid meter and he cannot also afford the cost of running a generator.
“What PowerGen has done to us is unfortunate and unacceptable. This is not good for business. They deceived us and this is a complete disappointment to us who had been relying on the service to do our business,” said Mr. Kengo who appeared completely annoyed while explaining his ordeal.
“They told us that this solar is capable of putting on any kind of electrical appliances and gadgets so no need for them to start casting blames on other things. What they need to do is to be sincere with themselves and boldly come out to say that they have failed us but this is not about illegal connections that they are blaming the whole problem on,” he added.
Mohamed is not the only consumer who is not hiding his frustrations about the poor service of the rural electricity supply. 55 year old Adama Tonia is another aggrieved customer. Mrs. Tonia is now exploring opportunities to light up her bar and restaurant that has gone for over a year without electricity from the grid. She has even vowed to get rid of the Power Gen connections including the meter and cables on her facility.
“I am looking for an opportunity to face those people to tell them about how disappointed I am at them. This is the height of wickedness but I do not blame them, I blame the government for giving them this project knowingly fully that they do not have the necessary resources to run the system”. Said Madam Tonia.
“These people had promised us severally that they were going to deal with the problems the solar is facing but they have done nothing about it so we’re are tired of listening to their lies. We are no longer going to listen to their empty promises which they are not ready to fulfill”, she said.
Musa Moinina who owns a tailoring show in Sahn is of the view that the whole electricity crisis has to do with the connection of the Qcell mobile tower to the grid that is causing the problem. “When PowerGen had not given light to Qcell, we had been enjoying 24/7 electricity but as soon as they connected that heavy duty gadget to their facility we are now in continuous blackout,” Musa lamented.
On their part, Mohamed Jalloh- Customer Engagement Manager, Power Gen made an immediate apology to his customers when contacted to have his side of the story.
“We are sorry for the embarrassment our customers are facing. We did not plan to put them into such situation. The company is doing everything possible to fix the problems once and for all,” said Jalloh who deals with customer affairs for PowerGen.
The apology came after he admitted that they indeed assured their customers during the registration period that they will give uninterrupted electricity supply to the people of Sahn Malen as long as the grid stays in the said community.
He blamed the energy crisis on the: indiscriminate and illegal connections members of the Sahn community have embarked on which is causing technical problems on the grid adding that it will soon be a thing of the past.
With regards to the above news I’m Mohamed Adamu also a customer/ subscriber to the power-gen service, it’s so frustrating that these guys have decided to treat us so unfairly for almost two (2) years now since the early beginning of 2022. Despite all the ill treatments from them we still had the courage that things will change instead it’s getting worse day by day.
Besides all the power outages the power-gen administrative have now embarked on stealing top-ups from our account I am a victim of such on 14/06/2023 there was a power supply for two here in the township of sahn town malen chiefdom but it was rather unfortunate I could get the power for reasons best known to them I call the person in charge by the name of Michael but he never picked my call and even switched off his phone, but knowing fully that I had the sum of NL 135 in my account yet I still went ahead to purchase another NL 5 and so my account was now NL140 but since the 14/06/2023 till date I’m not getting power at my house yet they went ahead and stole NL 68 from my account which is not fair at all and now I’ve left with NL 72 leones in my account but I’m not getting power at all it’s so disheartening the way power-gen is treating us at sahn town malen chiefdom Pujehun district.
I will rest my case here for now as there is more to say about this so-called power-gen service.