“Under this project we have two other sub components that is component 2.3 which is the distribution backbones in the provinces. There, we have two phases– phase one is dealing with Laminkoto Diabuku lines. We will be electrifying about 46 villages in the Sami District, and as of now, progress is going in Laminkoto Diabuku because installation has started and we are expecting the commissioning of the project to be around March 2023,” she said.
She also highlights that the phase two would deal with the Upper River Region North and South and some part of North Bank Region “and the contract was effective 12 October 2022 and is a 18-month contract,” she added.
She flagged that their institution is expecting to commission the JAM component which covers about 233 villages by the first quarter of 2024.
She made these statements while NAWEC was on a tour of the GERMP project sites in the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) such as Kotu, Jabang and Brikama.
Nani Juwara, the managing director of NAWEC, said the objective of the GERMP is to upgrade the country’s transmission and dissemination network from 33kb to 225kb. “This is the first time that NAWEC is implementing its own high voltage. Jabang is the center of activities where the main switch is located for the 225kb,” he said.
He added: “Brikama is where we have our national control center and all transmission networks will be connected to Brikama and we will control everything remotely unlike the manual system we have currently,” said Mr Juwara.
Isaac Ginara, the project consultant, said Kotu is a 33kb substation, the 33kb is supposed to come from Jabang which is the big substation linking the OMVG substation in Brikama.
“We are coming towards the transition line up to Jabang. In Kotu we are having two transformers which will be giving us 33 to 11kb. The 11kb is supposed to be used locally and NAWEC will see how to distribute it, the scope is to give them 11kb and then they join in their system. And we are looking forward to finishing the work next year,” he added.
Pateh Sowe, chief operating officer, Electricity Business Unit, said the project would address various problems The Gambia faces in energy.
“With the Commissioning of these sub stations we are going to shorten our lines to 33kb. Presently we are evacuating from Brikama all the way to Kotu, and having this transition line here, we will transform the voltage from 225 to 33kb instead of 225 all the way from Brikama.”
“It will now terminate the 33kb, and this will reduce our losses and create more redundancy as we will have six lines here. When that is done we can avoid the problem of one line affecting the entire system,” said Mr. Sowe.
