Temperature - European Investment Bank

WEST AFRICAN POWER POOL (WAPP) PÖYRY ENERGY LTD.
Mount Coffee HPP ESIA and RAP 2012-09-18
ESIA Report Page G
required. These mitigation measures are summarised in Chapter 20, while Chapter 21
provides a provisional environmental and social management plan (ESMP). This plan
also outlines organisation and structures required for the implementation of the plan. It
is important to see that the project proponent as well as the contractor(s) will have to
develop their own specific ESMPs, and will need to have the required organisation on
site, since the most sensitive phase it the construction period.
Chapter 22 describes very shortly the resettlement plan; this is work still under way.
Public participation (Chapter 23) is an on-going process, which will go into its next
decisive phase as soon as this report will have been accepted and will be presented to
the affected population.
The next chapters deal with a number of specific projects related issues. Project
alternatives are discussed in Chapter 24. The main alternative to using hydropower
would be to continue and expand the use of fuel oil for producing electricity. This is not
a sustainable solution, neither from an economic (high costs) nor from an environmental
(air pollution, GHG emissions) point of view. Concerning dam site or main dimensions
of the scheme here are no real alternatives to Mt. Coffee HPP as planned; the "no
project" case is not considered as a valid alternative for the country. Alternative
engineering design (e.g. roller compacted concrete instead of an earthfill dam are not of
relevance from an environmental and social point of view. There is a possibility to
increase installed capacity from 66 to 80 MW. This would cause a minor change in
downstream flow conditions (less spilling, since more water would pass through the
turbines); this change would not have any relevant negative impact.
An economic evaluation of the project was also carried out as part of the ESIA (Chapter
25). For this purpose the latest information and reports were collected in Liberia,
documenting the conditions prevailing in the power market of Liberia and the main
features of the Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project. The review of
the collected material showed that Liberia is in an urgent need for electricity. Under
these circumstances and taking into account that the implementation of the Mount
Coffee Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation will take four to five years, one can expect that
within a short period of time the complete production of Mount Coffee Hydropower
Plant can be absorbed by the consumers of Liberia.
The various possible other options to supply the growing need for electricity were
identified and compared. Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant and HFO thermal power
plant turned out to be the most promising options. To perform the economic analysis
updated information (end of February 2012) on the Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant
Rehabilitation Project could be obtained. Especially relevant were the mean annual
energy production and the construction cost. The value of the energy generated by
Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant was taken as equal to the unit cost of electricity
produced by a HFO thermal plant. The economic analysis was performed for the Base
Case with a discount rate of 10% and for various Sensitivity Cases. For the sensitivity
analysis, discount rates of 12% and 8% were used, the construction cost increased by
25% and the fuel cost (HFO) raised also by 25%. For all the cases studied, the Net
Present Value (NPV) was always significantly higher than zero. The Economic Internal
Rate of Return (EIRR) was higher than 17% and the unit cost of the generated
electricity, below 9.5 US cents per kWh.
Under these circumstances Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant Rehabilitation Project is
surely economically a very attractive option for the supply of electricity to the Greater