The Model of the Electrical System in Sierra Leone

Introduction

Sierra Leone is just emerging from a decade long civil war, which has virtually paralysed the economy, and during which period most of economic and social infrastructures, including energyrelated facilities, were destroyed. As the country embarks upon its post conflict development process and modernisation of its economy, there is need to address energy problems seriously. All modern economies are energy dependent. This means that if economic prosperity has to be achieved and sustained and living standards for the majority of Sierra Leoneans improved, a paradigm shift in policy and planning for energy supply and consumption is necessary. Energy policy statements have often been made through Annual Ministerial budgets. Yet the importance of the energy sector in the economy requires that a long-term planning approach for energy development be adopted.

Development of the Model of the Electrical System in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is reasonably well endowed with energy resources, particularly biomass energy (forestry), hydroelectricity and other renewable energy sources (e.g. solar energy). There is an extensive network of rivers and tributaries that provide a large hydroelectric power potential conservatively estimated at 1,200 MW. These resources can play a catalytic role in sustaining Sierra Leone's development. The country however faces difficulties with commercial energy supplies, particularly electricity supply. Sierra Leone also imports all of its petroleum fuels requirements. The institutional framework that was in place in the mid-1980s has not changed significantly. Most of the institutional deficiencies, which represented a major obstacle to the efficient and reliable supply of commercial energy, particularly with regard to the absence of a single Ministry for formulating and coordinating energy sector policy, have not yet been addressed. Sierra Leone experiences Energy poverty in Sierra Leone. This is evidenced by the low levels of consumption of modern energy forms (electricity and petroleum products), the inadequacy and poor quality of electricity services and the dominant reliance on wood fuel sources. Energy planning has often focused on the urban areas which are the main users of commercial fuels. The energy needs of the majority of the population who lives in rural areas and depends largely on biomass have largely been ignored. Energy supply improvement in the rural areas will play a pivotal role in poverty eradication. An objective of the Millenium Development Goals is to reduce global poverty by half by 2015. To implement the goal accepted by the international community to halve the proportion of people living on less than one dollar per day by 2015, access to affordable energy services is a prerequisite. The Sierra Leone constitution states as one of its economic objectives that the state shall “harness all natural resources of the nation to promote national prosperity and an efficient, dynamic and self reliant economy.” An energy policy that exploits the vast potential for energy from biomass, hydro resources and other renewable energy resources is certainly geared towards meeting this economic objective.

The need for an appropriate energy policy is also recognised by major programmes for various sectors ...