By Amadou Jadama
The managing director of the National Water and Electricity Company, Nani Juwara, has said that they have now interconnected with OMVG substation in Brikama and by the end of February, the Greater Banjul Areas will enjoy 24-hour electricity supply as many other areas of the country.
Mr Juwara, made this statement a week ago while talking to The Standard.
He explained: “As we speak, we are currently interconnecting with the OMVG substation in Brikama. The substation is now ready and we have already started the connections since last week to the substation, allowing us the opportunity to import more power up to about 50 megawatts, to add to our current generation capacity.
“Hopefully before the end of this month, the connections will be completed. We are also negotiating with Senelec who are going to be the supplier of that power through the OMVG network.
“When the work is completed, and we are connected to the OMVG, the issue of power generation within the Greater Banjul Area would be permanently resolved because the capacity we will be getting from the OMVG in addition to what is now available for us, would definitely be a little above the demand, and this we expect would be able to sort out the electricity problem within the Greater Banjul Area.
“We have done a similar arrangement in the North Bank Region. Now currently NBR and LRR are already connected to the OMVG, and they are getting 24-hour electricity supply. A similar arrangement was also done in Basse URR and CRR. As we speak those places are getting 24-hour electricity supply and this is the same thing we want to also have in the Greater Banjul Area.”
On plans for electricity expansion to settlements in the country that have not been connected to the national grid, MD Juwara explained: “Well that would be the next phase of our activities. Currently we have a number of projects to provide access to over 700 plus communities in the next three years. And our objective is to provide universal access by 2025. That is the objective of Nawec and the government.
“So currently, we have already signed a contract to provide over 398 communities in the West Coast, Lower River and Central River regions. We have also launched a tender for an additional 240 something communities to cover North Bank and Upper River regions.
Mr Juwara apologised to Nawec customers for the miseries they have been enduring as a result of the erratic power situation recently.
