Liberia: Anti-Power Theft Campaign Sparks Surge in Legal Connections
Mary Broh, the Co-Chair of the LEC Taskforce speaks to some Liberians who had gone to legitimize their status with LEC after years of illegal connection. While Emmanuel Nimely displays his receipt in the process.
The new campaign encourages residents to voluntarily walk on the Baptist Field and confess to the LEC team that they have had illegal power connections and that they have come to pay their fine, unlike before when residents found it difficult to obtain their meters, which was allegedly the main reason they claimed to engage in power theft.
For seven years, 43-year-old George Williams has been using the Liberia Electricity Corporation's (LEC) power without paying. It all started a few months after I acquired a meter in 2016.
"I had no intention of being involved in power theft, but my meter had a problem. I called the LEC people, and they promised to fix it. But they never did, even after several visits to their Waterside office," he said.
Williams would then stop bothering himself because the LEC was not going to show up. He, like many others, refused to use the service for free. However, his luck ran out when the company set up a task force to crack down on power theft in Monrovia and its surroundings.
Hundreds of residents who were connected illegally have since been disconnected as a result of the exercise. The LEC's anti-power theft taskforce, which was established in the latter part of last year, has forced Williams and thousands of residents of Paynesville to queue up as early as 6 a.m. at the Baptist Field on Duport Road to pay for their meters to be connected legally.
The new campaign encourages residents to voluntarily walk on the Baptist Field and confess to the LEC team that they have had illegal power connections and that they have come to pay their fine, unlike before when residents found it difficult to obtain their meters, which was allegedly the main reason they claimed to engage in power theft.
The standard meter fee is $22, but in addition to paying for the meter, they must also pay a power theft fine of US$50 for households, US$70 for small businesses, and US$500 for large corporations. Additionally, they must purchase $30 worth of current after the installation of the new installation.
Jestina Gbamokollie, a resident of Soul Clinic, said, "I came here at 8 a.m., and I just finished and paid for my meter, and it's almost 1 o'clock."
“I am here to pay for my power theft fine,” said 55-year-old Sheik Dukuly, a resident of Jacob Town in Paynesville. I have been using the current for a long time.”
The formation of the task force and the subsequent crackdown were necessitated by the high level of power theft in the country, with many illegally connecting to the national grid, robbing LEC of much-needed cash while simultaneously depriving others of current.
The situation then inhibits the growth of the LEC, preventing the public corporation from realizing any return on investment since the US Government and other partners committed $257 million to Liberia's Energy Sector to repair the Mount Coffee Dam and restore electricity.
The country loses about US$48 million to this crime each year, according to Monie Captan, Chief Executive Officer of LEC and head of the taskforce to combat power theft, and it is up to the few devoted customers, the government, and support partners to make up the shortfall.
"As we speak, the LEC is losing nearly 50% of its production, or electricity, amounting to over 48 million US dollars annually to power theft," the corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, Monie Captan, said at the launch of the taskforce. “LEC will waste no time in wielding out individuals that will be caught undermining its efforts and gains.”
“We will not also hesitate to dismiss any employees, and contractors of LEC that will facilitate or get into acts of power theft,” he said, adding, "I'm calling on you also to report any LEC person getting involved in power theft because I know some of our hands are not clean."
Meanwhile, Dr. Eugene Shannon, former Minister of Mines, and Energy, now President of the Natural Resources Development Corporation, hailed the LEC management and called for a more sustainable plan for the initiative.
“It will definitely give people easy access to power. You will generate more revenue. People will be at ease, not have to go to LEC to beg and bribe with money to get the meters,” he said.
According to Adolphus Scott, LEC Senior Communications Manager, 11,554 meters have been installed and activated in Paynesville.
Activated meters are meters that have gone through the LEC digital system and its functions fully, while installed meters are those that are installed but have not gone through the LEC digital platform to enable it to function properly.
“We decided to settle at Duport Road Baptist Field, where there’s a command center for Paynesville, so currently, the team is still working in the Paynesville area and has not yet completed about 50 percent of its work, so it is all about regularizing customers who are on direct line connections and are not paying bills or tariffs,” he said.
Scott noted that LEC is encouraging citizens through the anti-power theft task force to have all unregularized customers legally connected.
“If your meter had a problem and you were using free power or just using power from a direct line,” he put it simply. “People in these two categories, LEC, ask customers to come and get regularized.”
“People go to the Duport Baptist Field and say, 'Hey, I am on a direct line connection,' and they pay a fine of US $50. This fine is for the duration of free power, and then we give you a meter,” Scott said.
Meanwhile, the sudden surge in legal connections in Paynesville City, comes just a few weeks after Liberia got connected to the Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG) power grid, which intends to ensure a stable power supply for millions of Liberians.
The CLSG project involves the construction of five 225 kV substations and approximately 530 km of 225 kV power lines running across five counties in Liberia, according to TRANSCO CLSG, the regional power interconnection facility owner and transmission service provider.
“La Côte d’Ivoire is not giving us free electricity,” said Monie R. Captan, chief executive officer. “This PPA is a commercial agreement requiring Liberia to pay for the electricity it receives. Our goal is to work with communities to make this agreement sustainable and successful through legal connections and regular payment of electricity bills,” he stressed.”
The CLSG connection increased LEC’s power generation capacity by 27 megawatts. The power to be added on amounts to about 50% of what Mt. Coffee Hydro currently generates.