Rehabilitation of Mount Coffee Hydroelectric Power Plant (WAPP context)

completed

As a contribution to the reconstruction of the Liberian energy sector, the Mt. Coffee hydroelectric power station, which was destroyed during the civil war in 1992 and has an output of 88 MW (originally 64 MW), is to be rehabilitated as a regional priority project of the WAPP. The work includes a 66-kV switchgear and two 66-kV transmission lines, each 25 km long, leading from the power station to Monrovia. The project provides for a sustainable and economically favorable power supply and replaces the power supply based on diesel generators. Electricity from hydropower at the Mt. Coffee site is the cheapest alternative for generating electricity in the country. By implementing the project, electricity tariffs in Liberia, which at 0.53 USD/KWh are among the highest in Africa, can be reduced by up to 50%. Furthermore, by creating a sufficient electricity supply, the conditions for the re-electrification of the capital and the supply of electricity to rural areas will be created. By substituting diesel power, CO2 emissions are reduced sustainably. The target group is current and future electricity consumers (private households, companies, public institutions) in Liberia. In conjunction with the construction of a 1,360 km long transmission line connecting four countries (Côte d'Ivoire - Liberia - Sierra Leone - Guinea), the project also represents an important milestone for the integration of Liberia into the regional electricity network of West Africa.