Mount Coffee Hydropower Project

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The Mount Coffee Dam was built in the early years as TJR Faulkner / W. F. Walker Hydroelectric Power Station and was designated after the Firestone hydroelectric power plant, the second hydropower plant in the West African Republic of Liberia.

Location

The dam and the generating plant were built from 1963 to 1966 in the lower reaches of the Saint Paul River and are located about 30 kilometers northeast of the capital, Monrovia. The power plant was planned as Laufwasserkraftwerk. At the site in the towns of Arthington and Milsburg, near the Mount Coffee, a dam of about 150 m in length and a turbine house was built. The location was on a bend in the river, in which a natural tributary of the Saint Paul River had use for water level regulation. Further technical facilities and accommodation for the staff created 500 meters south of the dam on a hill.

Operating history

The power plant was the construction of the power systems in Liberia, urgent it has been used for the Port of Monrovia and for the population of the Liberian capital. The power plant was operated by the Liberia Electricity Corporation founded specifically, this had to organize the network expansion.

As generators and substation transformers American manufacturers were used, the generators provided 64 megawatts of power, the end user based either 220 V or 110 V mains voltage at a line frequency of 60 Hertz. At this time the Liberian power grid was built yet in the U.S. norm.

During the Liberian Civil War, the dam was repeatedly attacked by the rebels and 1990, the last generators were destroyed. However, the dam remained intact and has since served as a bridge yet.

After the end of the civil war investigations were repeatedly made ​​to the dam, which have a re-commissioning of the power plant to the destination. These were funded by the U.S. government with U.S. $ 400,000 in development aid. The studies have provided evidence for the technical suitability of the dam, but the destroyed turbines and equipment of the power plant, the power lines and substations must be completely renewed. As procurement costs of the technical equipment, consulting, personnel and operating costs for the start-up phase about 383 million U.S. dollars were estimated.

The currently existing in Liberia power plant capacities are exhausted. A Liberian government plan provides, therefore, to take the power plant Mount Coffee Dam back into operation and at the same time establish a West African power grid with neighboring countries Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. The plans failed because of the lack of provision of funds.

With the support of Danish development workers Liberia's electricity grid in 1998 was changed to the European energy network standard.