KEY POINTS
- Liberia’s electricity demand has reached 143 megawatts while domestic generation remains dangerously flat.
- Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant can only supply about 57 megawatts even at full capacity during heavy rainfall.
- The government is targeting 700 megawatts of national generation capacity by 2030 under President Boakai.
Liberia’s power sector has a problem that rain cannot fix, and the man in charge of the country’s electricity utility said exactly that on Tuesday.
Mohammed Sheriff, Managing Director of the Liberia Electricity Corporation, told a press briefing that electricity demand has surged to approximately 143 megawatts while domestic generation has remained essentially flat. The result is persistent load shedding and a growing dependence on power imported from neighboring countries. “Your demand is increasing, but your generation remains flat,” Sheriff said plainly.
The demand surge is partly a success story. LEC has expanded access from 32 to 38 percent in a single year, connecting new customers and pushing into communities previously left off the grid. But the growth has created new pressure. “When people build confidence in the system, they connect, and that drives demand upward,” Sheriff said.
Why domestic generation cannot keep up
The constraints are structural. Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant, Liberia’s main domestic source, can deliver only about 57 megawatts even during heavy rainfall. Thermal plants make up the gap but cannot meet the full load. “Even if the rain falls heavily, Mount Coffee can only give you about 57 megawatts,” Sheriff said.
He pushed back on public assumptions that the crisis is primarily a technical or weather-related issue. The underlying problem is a long-term generation deficit that no seasonal rainy season will solve. “The rain can help, but it is not the solution,” he said.
Regional Imports and the Road to 700 Megawatts
Liberia has turned to the West African regional power pool to bridge the gap, drawing electricity from Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea. But that option is shrinking. Both countries are dealing with their own declining hydroelectric output and are putting domestic supply first. “These countries first need to feed their own people before exporting power,” Sheriff acknowledged.
Load shedding will continue until domestic generation catches up to demand. Sheriff said LEC is working to introduce additional thermal plants in the short term while pursuing a broader government plan to reach 700 megawatts of national generation capacity by 2030 under President Joseph Nyuma Boakai.
“The only lasting solution is to build our own capacity to meet demand,” he said. Until then, Liberians will keep managing a system that is outgrowing itself faster than it can be fixed.
