… and related infrastructure project
Abidjan, Ivory Coast — The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund, meeting today in Abidjan, has approved an additional loan of $7.41 million to complete implementation of the Renewable Energy for Electrification project in Liberia. The African Development Fund is the concessional lending window of the African Development Bank Group.
The additional financing will be used to cover a cost overrun for construction of the hydropower plant and related infrastructure, as well as project management cost overruns related to implementation delays. The facility will also support under-financed activities, including implementation of the Gender Action Plan. These targeted uses will ensure achievement of the project’s planned outputs, which are completion of the hydropower plant, its integration into the grid and the full implementation of safeguards.
Liberia Renewable Energy for Electrification is a joint initiative of the Liberian government and the African Development Bank. The project was approved on 31 October 2019, financing agreements were signed on 29 January 2020, and project implementation began in March 2021.
The key part of the project is construction of a run-of-river hydropower plant (electricity generation using the river current) with capacity of 9.34 megawatts (56.5 gigawatt-hours/year) in the Gbedin Falls area of Nimba County. The plant will be connected to an 8-km 33-kilovolt evacuation line and two transformer substations, and also to a cross-border transmission line. A 15-km permanent access road and an 8-km temporary road to the hydropower site will be built to ensure access to the power plant site. The project also calls for installation of 50 km of 33/0.4-kilovolt distribution lines and the connection of 6,650 households to the power grid in Nimba and Bong County.
Upon completion, the project is expected to increase Liberia’s national energy mix by 56.5 gigawatt-hours per year, representing about 6.9 percent of Liberia’s total supply, and it will also expand electricity access to around 60,000 people who did not previously have connection. In addition, a 6,500 people will be directly connected to the national grid.
