LERC BoC welcomes Power Purchase Agreement Between LEC and Côte D’Ivoire Énergies

The Board of Commissioners (BoC) of the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) says it welcomes the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed between the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) and Côte D’Ivoire Énergies (CIE), for the supply of 27 megawatts of electricity to Liberia.

The BoC also welcomes the signing of the Transmission Service Agreement (TSA) between the Government of Liberia(GoL) TRANSCO-CLSG. The BoC urges LEC to put into place stringent measures to drastically minimize power theft and commercial losses to fulfil its financial obligations to CIE.

“If LEC is to raise the required revenue to meet up with its financial obligations,” LERC’s Chairman Dr. Lawrence D. Sekajipo recommends.

“outsourcing the supply connection materials to include the importation of meters and retail of electricity and vigorously fight the systematic electricity theft across the country”. Dr. Sekajipo restated that “LERC’s critical role remains to drive transformation in the Liberian electricity sector to ensure it becomes vibrant and efficient in delivering services to citizens and residents alike as envisaged by the 2015 Electricity Law of Liberia.”

In 2021, LEC, in its tariff submission to the Commission, attributed “commercial losses to outright power theft that is being perpetrated by residential and commercial consumers” irrespective of the passage of the “Power Theft Law”. The Commission lauds the GoL  through the Ministries of Mines and Energy, Finance and Development Planning and the management of LEC for taking concrete actions to procure 27 megawatts of power through the CLSG interconnection project and hopes it addresses the massive outage and load shedding experienced during the last dry season.

The BoC says it will continue to create the enabling regulatory environment until Liberia’s electricity sector becomes vibrant; and is committed to supporting LEC and other operators in combating electricity theft and retrieving huge debts which have resulted to financial instability in the sector. The Commission is committed to continuous engagement with all stakeholders in the electricity industry, Dr. Sekajipo concluded.