Former Country Manager of Karpowership Gambia, Omar A.B. Njie, has weighed in on the debate over the company’s role in The Gambia’s electricity sector, arguing that comparisons of its costs with electricity imported from Senegal and Guinea should take into account differences in generation, contracts and reliability.

Njie, who said he was speaking as both a former Karpowership manager and a Gambian citizen, said there had been continued discussion about whether Karpowership’s electricity was too costly and whether its operations placed additional pressure on the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC).

He argued that the cost of electricity should be assessed alongside the reliability and contractual arrangements under which it is supplied.

According to Njie, comparing Karpowership’s generation costs with electricity purchased from Senegal’s SENELEC or Guinea’s EDG does not provide a direct comparison because the utilities have different generation systems and cost structures.

He said SENELEC’s ability to supply electricity to The Gambia at lower rates could partly be explained by its larger generation base and the availability of excess capacity, which allows the utility to sell additional power without having to bear the full cost of developing dedicated generation infrastructure for the Gambian market.

Njie also pointed to Guinea’s reliance on hydroelectric generation, which he said can provide relatively low-cost electricity but is affected by seasonal availability.

Karpowership, he said, operated differently by providing dedicated generation capacity under a contractual arrangement, with an uptime guarantee of 95%.

Njie said reliability was an important consideration when assessing the overall cost of electricity, particularly given the economic impact of prolonged power outages.

He also cited challenges within NAWEC’s own generation system. According to Njie, the utility had at one point been able to operate less than 20MW of its more than 70MW installed generation capacity, although he said available capacity had since improved to around 30MW.

Njie questioned why Karpowership continues to operate in a number of countries, including Senegal, Guinea, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, if its generation model is considered inherently uneconomical.

He attributed the company’s ability to offer more competitive terms in some markets partly to economies of scale and longer-term contracts.

Njie said SENELEC’s contract with Karpowership, for example, involves significantly more capacity than was required by NAWEC. He argued that larger contracts allow fixed operational costs to be spread over greater electricity output.

He said NAWEC’s relatively smaller requirements and shorter contractual arrangements limited the potential for similar economies of scale.

According to Njie, Karpowership had encouraged NAWEC to consider longer-term contracts and somewhat higher capacity requirements, which he said could have resulted in different pricing.

He also disputed the characterization of Karpowership’s capacity charges as particularly high.

Njie said the capacity charge was reduced during successive contract renegotiations following Karpowership’s arrival in The Gambia in 2018. He further claimed that the company had offered NAWEC what he described as its most competitive terms before its eventual departure, but that the offer was not accepted.

He said the overall price paid by NAWEC also included significant variable costs, particularly Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO).

Njie described the HFO component as a pass-through cost linked to international Platts pricing rather than a cost independently determined by Karpowership.

He also said NAWEC’s payment arrangements differed from those of Karpowership’s other customers, claiming that the Gambian utility was not subject to price escalation or interest charges on delayed payments, even when payments were delayed for several months.

Transmission capacity

Njie also addressed the issue of transmission capacity and the inability to consistently evacuate the full 30MW contracted from Karpowership.

He said that, when the company arrived in 2018, it identified transmission infrastructure between the Powership and Kotu Power Station as necessary to transfer the contracted electricity into the national grid.

According to Njie, the transmission work was outsourced to a private company, which he declined to identify, and the infrastructure did not meet the required standards.

He said this affected the amount of electricity that could be evacuated, with Karpowership typically delivering between 27MW and 28MW despite the 30MW contractual capacity.

Njie argued that the transmission limitations should therefore be considered separately from Karpowership’s generation capacity, as the relevant infrastructure was outside the company’s direct operational control.

He said the experience highlighted the importance of coordinating generation investments with adequate transmission infrastructure.

Njie concluded by defending Karpowership’s model of deploying floating power plants as a rapid response to electricity shortages.

He said the company’s international operations demonstrate the potential value of combining rapid deployment with longer-term contracts and larger generation capacities.

At the same time, the debate over Karpowership’s role in The Gambia continues to involve broader questions about the cost of electricity generation, NAWEC’s financial position, domestic generation capacity, transmission infrastructure and the reliability of alternative sources of electricity.

Njie’s comments represent his perspective based on his former role with Karpowership.