Sierra Leone: Ground-breaking at HFO project


07 Mar 2018 | 2 minute read

UK-based Globeleq announced on 7 March that construction is now underway at the 57MW Western Area Power Generation Project, located at Kissy Dock near Freetown, Sierra Leone. A ground-breaking ceremony at the site was overseen by Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma. Project company Salone Power is owned by UK development finance institution CDC Group, Globeleq, and Lebanese-registered Tempus Constant Qualities Power (TCQ Power), which was founded in 2011 and is based in Abu Dhabi.

The project is being funded through loans from the World Bank Group’s (WBG) International Finance Corporation – which was also lead arranger – CDC Group, the Netherland’s FMO, the African Development Bank, and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group, which acted as structuring bank. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) and International Development Agency, both part of the WBG, are providing guarantees.

“The ground-breaking of the Western Area Power Generation Project is an important step in increasing Sierra Leone’s electricity generation potential”, CDC director and head of infrastructure Sameh Shenouda said. “CDC is playing an important and growing role in supporting economic development in Sierra Leone and our support for the project will increase the country’s baseload capacity by more than 50%.”

The plant will comprise six Wärtsilä 32 engines running primarily on HFO but with LFO as backup and will occupy an area of 3.03ha. Finland’s Wärtsilä is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor and will be responsible for operations and maintenance for a period of 15 years. Two expansions are provided for in the 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) signed with the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) in May 2014. BB Energy is providing fuel for the project under a 15-year fuel supply agreement.

The Western Area project has a long history and has seen several developers come and go. Early development work was carried out by a company called Blue Flare Power SL (BVI) Ltd, established to invest in Freetown’s generation and distribution infrastructure. TCQ Power joined the project in 2012 and was joined by Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) subsidiary CEC Africa Investments Ltd in April 2013. CDC Group acquired CEC’s stake in 2016 and was later joined by Globeleq. CDC announced in January that it had made a bid to acquire a majority stake in CEC.

Salone Power is near the front of a growing queue of projects underway in Sierra Leone. A 25-year PPA was signed with Joule Africa and the Energy Services Company for the 143MW Bumbuna II project in November 2017. Financial close is expected for the project in Q4 this year. In December construction was launched for a 6MW solar plant in Freetown (AE 360/15). Meanwhile the Karadeniz Powership Doğan Bey began providing 30MW power under a 5-year agreement in January.

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