Reform EDSA Or Loss $431 Million …Chairman Of Renewable Energy Warns

By Fatmata Mohamed Bangura
The Chairman for Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security, Hon. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella has warned that government should either reform the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) or stand to lose $431 million by 2027.
Hon. Yumkella made this call, highlighting that if EDSA is not reformed, the utility would accrue to 431 million dollars in losses.
Dr. Yumkella added that EDSA needs to be reformed and that if it is not reformed, all the funding will not yield anything.
He demonstrated that transition from HFO would help EDSA reduce 192 million dollars to cash flow, improve its 33KV and 11KV distribution network and that if loses are reduced to 25% EDSA would add 333 million in revenue.
This disclosure was made by Hon. Yumkella at the weekly government press briefing where he intimated that there will be a transition in the energy sector from 250 MW to 1 GW to address the energy challenge in the country.
Hon. Yumkella mentioned that President Bio’s vision for the just concluded Energy Transition Plan would be launched in September this year and that the vision has already been set to actualize in the next three years.
He called on the private sector and encouraged them to show interest in the project as there are lots of benefits in the Energy Sector and that some investors had already shown interest in investing in the sector.
Disclosing that they have received the funding for the implementation the project, he said that they had been working on for a very long time ago.
He said that in order to solve the long age problem of energy which is not a quick fix one, have they scaled up a project that would solve that problem but that the citizens should exercise patience.
He warned that energy problem should be seen a political problem and that people should stop politicizing it.
He continued that it is a systemic problem which many administrations have failed to solve and that as a government, they want to fix the problem for the generations, noting that they had no intention to fool the people if not they would have requested for another ship to provide electricity.
He reiterated that electricity problem had been a perennial problem but they had the solution to solve it now with the funding received from development partners.
He emphasized that the intermittent shortage of power outrage was because of the 161MW they were using which was a challenging factor for them adding that any problem that happens to Bumbuna 161, the whole country would suffer power outage.