Further LEC headaches

After about 2 weeks of having to run our generator every day (this is $ 20.00 of fuel per day), I was quite frustrated! 

Before our meter went off, we had just topped up our meter with 200 units which we were not able to use!

I asked our expatriate staff, Farman, to go personally to the LEC and follow up. He went with our Liberian techie, Daniel, last Saturday. They visited both the Waterside and Bushrod Island offices. They had taken an official letter of complaint also with them. They were not able to submit the letter and then went to the Bushrod Island office where apparently Daniel found a friend who works there. I don't think much transpired and, of course, nothing was done that Saturday.

We came back to work on 2 January and, I saw that Farman had not gone to the LEC to file the letters and then follow up. I told him to proceed. But all he really did was file the letter without making any noise. 

The next day, he was a little fired up and, asked for a contact from a Pakistani friend he has here (who  works at a company in Bushrod Island). He was directed to someone at Bushrod Island who sent a crew back with him! 

The crew managed to put our light back on (so what the other technician said during the previous visit was completely wrong)! 

However, only 2 phases worked and half our work stations could not come on. I asked Farman to see if we can manage with extension cords. 

This morning, only 1 phase is working. I asked Farman to follow up again and get it sorted out. 

What adds to one's frustration is that staff doesn't seem to have the sense of urgency to get problems resolved like a manager/business owner does. What's the end result? Even more grey hairs! 

Experiences with LEC Management 🇱🇷 🔌💡⚡🔦

Our experiences with the LEC don't give us much hope that infrastructure and public services are improving. 

I wrote about the experience of a fire sparking on the pole just at eye level near our apartment's balcony and, even posted about it on the Liberia Expats Google Group. Received a lot of responses and similar frustrating experiences. 

Since then, the pole near our apartment where we live didn't spark again thankfully but it's always a lingering anxiety. What if it sparks again? Will we be at home? Who will douse it? 

Since then, I started writing to the LEC Manager, Ernest Hughes, who at first was quite apologetic and sympathetic with the poor service i.e. lack of response to our calls. His explanation for weaknesses at the LEC were: "Most of the expansion of LEC has happened through donors, hence LEC has not grown logistically to handle the increased demand. " (E-mail 24 November)

To this, I wrote a long response back providing examples of difficult it is to get assistance from Customer Service, there isn't any clearly published information and contacts, the bribes the ground crew almost always demand bribes, etc. 

I kept writing to the LEC management, including Ernest Hughes, to ask for help with issues at both our locations: apartment and office. For example, for weeks, the office LEC's voltage was too low:

1) Phase 1: 125 volts

2) Phase 2: 70 volts

3) Phase 3: 65 volts 

And, at the house, the voltage was slightly better although the 3rd phase (on which we have our security lights and 1 AC) was almost off: 

1) Phase 1: 170/180 volts

2) Phase 2: 170/180 volts

3) Phase 3: 9 volts

We kept writing seeking assistance (since 24 November) and then on 11 December a crew came over only to say they didn't have the ladder to go up on the pole. When I wrote back on the same e-mail thread and said, I was 'astonished!' to which the LEC Manager responded angrily:

"Farzana, This is going too far with your disrespect for my organization. Your emails are coming across as very rude and unsavory. I will not tolerate your constant jabs at our processes, unless you do so professionally. 

We doing the best that we can and will continue to provide you the right service. However, if you feel that our service is not good enough, as a customer you have every right to pursue other options. LEC is less than 6 years old;  it takes time to improve an organization. 

I will no longer tolerate the tone of these messages to me and my staff.

Regards" 

I was shocked at this response which told me I had no right to get frustrated and moreover, I could go find another company. I had to apologise and said I was merely frustrated. 

Our meter at the office completely went off on 18 or 17 December. We kept writing and calling Joseph Howes (Asst Managing Director | Transmission&Distribution) until he sent a crew on 27 December. The crew came over with all the equipment and manpower necessary, so it seemed. 

Photographs below are from 27 December:

At first the crew said no meter on the pole matched our meter number. Then he said the only 3-phase meter on the pole was off : "It was not powering on." We produced LEC receipts and, then he realised indeed our meter was up there. But he still confirmed that it was not coming on and, we needed to call his boss. After he left, one of my staff said, when he was on the pole, he never said the meter was not coming on. He was not interested in fixing the problem. 

Of course, all subsequent calls to Joseph Howe did not yield anything and he stopped taking my calls. I also stopped writing on the e-mail thread to the LEC Management. 

I ask our readers, are the experiences described above and elsewhere in our blog a issue of lack of logistical resources or mismanagement?

Farzana Rasheed, CEO, NATC

LEC Mismanagement 🔌💡⚡🔦

See a message I posted below at the Liberia Expats Google Group. It's a closed Google Group which doesn't only have 'expatriate' members but also many Liberians and members of the Lebanese and Indian business communities. It's a useful forum to share and exchange information and, in this case, share frustrations. 

Dear friends,

It’s ironic that a Safe Streets Festival is being organised tomorrow but what about safety and improvement of LEC services? We have had a fire break out on our pole twice and both times we called the Emergency Hotline (Dixon on 0886 705715) and until now, no one has showed up. We rang them up again now and they said, ‘Don’t talk to much.’ 

Not only is LEC’s customer service extremely poor (it takes weeks and weeks to process a request and, we always have to tip the field technicians otherwise they will literally not do the work), but even reports of a fire will not wake them up! 

We pay some of the highest tariffs for electricity in the world but service and quality is poor. The LEC was mostly on in the rainy season but since the dry season started, voltage has been unstable (damaging equipment) and voltage is low. If you get something damaged, you will bear the costs. If the voltage is too low, you’ll have to spend extra money to run a generator. 

The LEC has been supported by donors, has its management outsourced and, money has been pumped in to restart the hydro. But it’s mismanaged, corrupt and frustrating! Our company (NATC) even shared its experiences on Bush Chicken but even such stories on public media don’t embarrass the management at LEC. 

That even requests to send technicians to check a fire did not produce any response from the LEC is shocking and scary! 

My husband had to put out the fire using a fire extinguisher, leaning out from the balcony and burnt himself. Ironically, the fire was at the same level as our balcony so he could lean out of the balcony and put out the fire. 

These are raw, frightening and disturbing experiences. Let folks know what the state of infrastructure and management is in Monrovia! 

Any advice on how to reach out to the highest LEC management will be appreciated. 

Regards, Farzana

These are responses that came up on the group:

1) Sorry but nobody is able to manage it. Maybe they're lacking resources. At the customer care center they're looking at you like is your fault. We are waiting for one month for the pole meter to be changed. Not even one reply from them. All your credit that you have on that meter is gone, nobody is talking to you. There are LEC employees who are ready to sale and install a meter for you for $350. Meter that probably was stolen before from somebody else, by themselves. It's discouraging. God bless Liberia!

2) I have eight years of bad experience dealing with LEC. I tried acquiring their service for 5yrs without success. Finally, I happened to work with a firm that managed and funded some of their activities. I discovered that I already had three separate connections, unbeknownst to me.

But fast forward to about six month ago. I needed my meter relocated from a public pole to a private pole. At customer service, yet I was the only one sitting, I had to shout my way through. They requested diagram, letter, estimate of current distance and then proposed relocation distance...plus more. Being an old unhappy customer, I had all those at hand. I was processed and asked to expect a call within two to three weeks. 

That was over six months ago. But I just needed to document my claim. I contracted some of the very workers to relocate my meter. Case closed.

Rome can a very complex city when you are from Egypt.

3) Early this month we noticed unusual brightness in all our light bulbs and many phone chargers damaged .when we tested the Voltage guess what?340 volts .-:)

4) I advise you all to install overvoltage to protect all your electrical equipment . You can buy it from powerline randall street. 

5) We experienced the same problem. As a restaurant it was double the frustratipn since we had to get a smaller generator as a back.up.for a back.up.generator. After all is done.they fix it and a mo th later they bring a new meter that on.its own.is consuming 1-2 kw per minute so now i have current but had to pay 3 times normal spending. Even when im using the generator and the lec is not connected our new meter still.consumes our credit on its own 

6) Hi Farzana

I had a court case against LEC. It started 6 years ago after they failed to connect my house in Congo Town, after having paid fees and bribes to get connected for two years, amounting to 2000 USD. The court case went on for 4 years until the chief justice ordered them to pay me back my money plus all the legal fees up to 10.500 USD now. 

Many times I had appealed to the (always changing)  management but all the consecutive CEO's didn't care.

Of all the corrupt and ineffective institutions in Liberia LEC is certainly in the top 10.

Only pressure from very high levels can make them move at all. They have a monopoly so, why should they care about the customers?

Good luck fighting the dragon

7) We all have the same or similar horrow stories. Its just blatant wicked corruption. Please let us know if this Joseph Howe does resolve yours, because we gave up on calling them since our pole has burnt so many times that it is actually out.

8) Call Joseph Howe on 0886884592. He should handle it..

Stolen cables

This morning, we saw that our cables were stolen! The cables connecting our generator and office were stolen. So, our handyman, our senior technician, Farman, ran some new cables.

What a way to start the week!

LEC Woes ⚡

by Haresh Karamchandani

The Liberia ElectricityCorporation is the only entity that supplies electricity to Liberia. No competition.

In the good old days before the war started, they had a fully functional Hydro-Electric Power station at Mount Coffee which not only supplied power to Liberia but also to the neighboring countries. The grid was well planned and laid out. Cables ran throughout the length and breadth of Liberia. I don’t remember owning a generator or hearing the hum of generator during those good old days. I also remember visiting the LEC stations in Bushrod Island, where they had huge turbine type generation plants, powered by diesel. These were used as a stand by just in case the hydro needed maintenance or had any breakdown, which was very rare.

The war came and brought along widespread looting, rampaging of the infrastructure. All the cables and towers were stolen and sold as scrap which was shipped out by the ship load to metal scrap hungry countries. The hydro power station was bombed, burnt, looted. Completely destroyed.

As the war ended and peace times began, things normalized, and generators became the norm. Every business, household, had to install a generator in order to have electricity. Some smart business people installed huge generators around town and ‘supplied” current at exorbitant prices.

Recently, the hydro has been rehabilited at a cost of several hundred million dollars. One can see new infrastructure, cables, poles all over the country, but alas the LEC woes continue.

I wish to narrate what we have gone through recently.

We had a single phase meter installed by LEC to supply current to our residence on Randall street.

The breaker kept tripping, and also on 2 separate occasions the meter burnt out. We would write a letter to LEC Commercial Department and follow up on a daily basis and within about a month they would come with a replacement meter.

After the meter got burnt out for the third time in less than a year, the LEC advised that we should apply for a 3-phase meter as possibly the single phase meter is unable to handle the load from our airconditioners. We promptly applied and started following up on a day to day basis.

Initially, we were told that they do not have new 3 phase meters in stock and have ordered them and are waiting for delivery. After waiting for a month, we finally were able to strike a deal with an LEC official who said they could help. The meter came the same day and was installed. But it was not as easy as that.

Even though we had a brand new 3 phase meter, we did not have electricity. The LEC crew said that there was an issue with some phases in the main line that would need to be fixed, before we could start getting current. I had accumulated a few telephone numbers of LEC field men and kept pestering them daily. Finally, one day they came and rectified the problem and after “tipping them $200.00” our LEC at home was restored.

Last night, the LEC went off, and came back on after 30 minutes. But no, it did not come on properly. Only 2 phases are working and the 3^rd phase is reading 22v only. Half the house does not have electricity.

Back to square one? Well, yes, this is Liberia. I have written to LEC and will start calling them up until they can come and fix the issue. Till then we will have to use our back-up Generator, which is another story altogether.

LEC Crew comes to our aid

We have not had light at our house for 2 weeks. We rang up LEC every day, twice a day. Finally, the crew arrived late at night. One of the crew climbed up the pole, fiddled with something, and came back down after 1 minute. The light was back on. We spent $ 20.00 on a tip because crew coming at this house expect tips.

You'll see a photograph of Head of Operations, Haresh, down in the street with the crew.

With all the ups and downs with LEC service, I'm finally beginning to appreciate some business owners' frustration who do not even depend on LEC. They are fully dependent on generators. 

Generator Woes!

by Haresh Karamchandani

After using it for about 5 years we upgraded our Kama 5.5 KVA Diesel Generator to a Chinese made 7.5 KVA Generator at our residence about a year ago.

This cost us US$3,000.00, but considering it was a 7.5 KVA we were happy to spend this money as a 10 KVA Lister Petter or Perkins would cost about $7,500.00, and considering our usage load at home a 7.5 KVA would be good enough.

We ensured that the generator was well maintained regularly. The company that sold the generator to us would send their technician to service the generator regularly by changing the oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter and do a general check and clean-up.

The generator worked well, worked well till one evening:

LEC went off one evening and I jumped off my couch to start it before the UPS would go off. It would start, but instantly switch off. I tried and tried to no avail. Bye bye Dallas! (We watch the 80s TV series on DSTV Channel, CBS Drama, Channel 134 every evening at 9:30 PM)

The next morning I got a technician to have a look and he took out a solenoid valve and cleaned it up and put it back. This solved the starting problem.

2 nights later, the same pattern followed, but this time it would not even start. It would just keep kicking but no starting. Our landlord who lives in the same apartment complex said he knew a technician and called him to come and help. The “experienced” technician worked on the machine for an hour and a half but was unable to fix it and eventually gave up citing that the fuel pump has failed!

The next morning I called up the supplier of the generator and asked them to send over their technician. A different technician came and got down to the job. After some trouble shooting he concluded that yes indeed the Fuel Pump had failed.

I could not believe the young technician as we had maintained and serviced the generator by the book all the time. The technician invited me to come and have a look. I went down to the generator room and this is what I learnt.

Apparently there is a dip stick on the fuel pump which helps to check the oil levels in the pump whenever the maintenance is done. And there is a bolt that need to be opened and oil needs to be replenished if low from time to time. The oil in our fuel pump was COMPLETELY DRY, and this is why the fuel pump had failed!

I spoke to another Lebanese technician friend and asked him what he thought about this. He said the Lister Petters or Perkins do not have this kind of feature. Instead the fuel pump automatically gets oil from the engine. The Chinese decided to make this feature for reasons best known to them. I checked the service manual and there was no mention of this there.

I then called up the original technician who has been servicing our generator over the last one year and asked him:

Me: Kamara, did you check the oil in the fuel pump when you did the servicing the last month? Kamara: Mr. Haresh, what oil? The fuel pump? Me: Yes, the fuel pump. Kamara: Mr. Haresh, the fuel pump should NEVER be touched. If you touch it you spoil the generator!

I straight away realized that this guy has never worked on a Chinese machine and did not know that the Chinese fuel pump needs to be checked periodically. He has been under the impression that the Chinese machine worked like the regular Listers and Perkins! They say “Little knowledge is dangerous” I fully agree.

Now this fuel pump had to be repaired or replaced in order to get the generator to work.

I called up the supplier and asked him if he had a replacement fuel pump in stock. He said he did not, but could order it by DHL from China and it would cost US $1,000.00 and would take 10 days. I said that was not a good solution and there should be another way out. He then suggested that we take the fuel pump out and go to Hydraulic Technical Inc, in Bushrod Island to see if they could repair it.

HTI is a swanky, well equipped, state of the art workshop that repairs all types of pumps. I was very impressed with their set up with an Operation Theatre like lab and latest diagnostic tools and equipment. The chief technician was an elderly Egyptian who claimed to have 40 years’ experience in repairs of pumps. He spoke like a Doctor and explained that the fuel pump was actually the heart of the generator. He got down to the job and a few hours and US$350.00 later the pump was as good as new.

He blamed the damage to bad quality fuel in the market and advised that we spend another $125.00 and install a water-fuel separator, which I agreed.

So the machine now has a water-fuel separator and it is working like brand new. At least for now!

Blog Post on camera installations by Daniel Collins

Dear readers,

During the month of February, our Head of Operations got an email from Mr. Tunde Kushimu of NEC West Africa Limited, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation of Japan to confirm his interest in partnering with NEC to deploy 23 Thermography cameras in 10 locations in Liberia.

After accepting, he called me up from my seat that evening and asked me to read the mail he received and had been responding to. I was like “wow”! Sounds good. He said this is not all. The reason I called you is that I want to put you on this project and I trust you can do it but let’s see if this will come to reality.

I was excited with the idea of my boss but when I explained this to my department head, he said that this could be 4.1.9 which means a scam but I thought to myself again, how? By the way, we were recommended by one of our clients, the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) so I said to him that this can’t be. After few days I overhead him discussing it with our Head of Operations on the same scam. I was feeling discouraged somehow for this would have been an experience for me if it works.

The news on this whole project died down for I could not hear anything concerning it but there was some underground work that was going on which I was not copy on email. Before then I was asked if I had my passport and when I said no, he quickly arranged funds to have my passport ready just in case. But I’ll tell you; in Liberia about 65 percent don’t have a passport. People only get passport if they have a chance/opportunity to travel out of Liberia. I first started to prepare with obtaining my birth certificate, which can take three to one months. The processes here is very slow, but guess what happened? Instead of them inserting male, on my birth certificate they inserted female. I took it back to the Ministry of Health to have it corrected. I filled in the form and paid the fees at the (LRA) Liberia Revenue Authority and kept the original copy of my receipt.

On the 2^nd of June I was copied on the email on the specific date I would travel to Accra for the training, which was short notice for me. I could not meet up with the exact date scheduled. It was so embarrassing because I still did not have my birth certificate, which I needed to apply for a passport. The same day I went back to the Ministry of Health but it not possible to get it. I came back and explained it to my boss and he quickly gives me the contact of the Passport director. I met the lady and explained the same situation. She asked for all the previous receipts, and copy of the old birth certificate and I submitted them for her record and instructed her assistant to issue my passport without a birth certificate.

The assistant started to delay the process again after explaining the urgency of my travel. I noticed that this guy needed a ‘small thing’ (Bribe). I give him what he requested and my passport was issued to me on the 6^th of June.

NATC arranged my ticket on the 8^th of June to fly to Accra and the next day to Lagos.  It was nice sleeping in Accra for a night in a beautiful hotel called Eracta. The next morning I flew to Lagos and the same day the training was conducted in this address: 3rd Floor, MAKU PLAZA, No.109, Awolowo Road, South-West Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria for three days.  The training included setup, configuration of the camera and the survey. 

I returned to Liberia on the 13^th of June.

On Monday, 15^th of June I contacted the Mr James Dobor Jallah, the Director of the Ebola Command Centre of Liberia to provide the contact persons of all the sites to start my survey.

The contact persons would not provide me access. They kept me waiting all day as if I was from different planet until my boss joined me. I can tell you one thing, we don’t respect our own people and it’s very sad. You will only be recognised if you are holding a very good position before you will be recognised.

Moving on, the site surveys were completed and the installations began:

• 1)     Robert International Airport

• 2)     James Spriggs Payne Domestic Airport

• 3)     University of Liberia main campus

• 4)     University of Liberia Fendall campus

• 5)     Freeport of Monrovia

• 6)     Buchannan Port

• 7)     Sinoe Port

• 8)     Harper Port

• 9)     Ministry of Finance

• 10)  Ministry of Transport

Instead of the original 8 sites, we were instructed to add additional 2 sites by the Ebola Command Centre.

Installation was not an easy task. Some of the sites did not even had electricity and we had to run behind the authorities and even had to hire our own electrician.

For every site I installed the cameras, I conducted a basic training for those who are going to take/ check body temperature at each entrance (s).

Difficult sites

One of the sites that were very difficult to deal with was the Freeport of Monrovia. Authorities refused to take responsibility of the equipment installed; everyone wants to show his/her power.

Second, Harper Port and Greenville Ports were difficult due to bad road conditions. I often had to sleep on the road because the vehicle broke down.

Easy Sites

These were my favourite installations:

1. Roberts International Airport
2. James Spring Spain Domestic Airport
3. University of Liberia main campus
4. University of Liberia Fendall campus
5. Buchanan Port
6. Ministry of Finance
7. Ministry of Transport

I have learned the technology is advancing every day. I had never before seen a camera that could detect the human body’s temperature. Not only that I was trained in how to use it and train others.  

The deadly disease called Ebola brought a lot of sorrow and devastation to many families to where ever it broke out, and has taken an important page in our history. Many people died from ignorance and fear. Thanks to the International Community and donor partners for seeing the need to come to our rescue.

In every community, churches, mosques, schools, hospitals, clinics and business centres are practicing personal hygiene.

I like to say thanks to the management of New Africa Technology Company (NATC) for supporting me in every aspect of this project especially Mr Haresh, Head of operations for working along with me.

I am willing to doing more in exploring my experience.

By Daniel Collins

Inconsistent LEC generates headaches

by Farzana Rasheed

A constant supply of uninterrupted electricity is still a distant dream in Liberia. 

Service from LEC, while extremely expensive, US $ 0.52 per kw, continues to be inconsistent. For the better part of 2014, we have had no service at our office on Randall Street. Yes, we had NO LEC service at all, not even for a couple of hours. This meant we have been relying solely on our 15 kVA generator for power. Moreover, our neighbors started sharing our generator. One of our neighbors is our landlord so the sharing is goodwill! Another is a garage and in exchange they service the generator every Saturday. The other neighbour is a mobile repair shop and they pitch in cash every alternate day to pay for fuel. 

Our total consumption is about 35 Amps and our 15 kVA generator has a 60Amp capacity and consumes 5 gallons of diesel every day (costs $ 20.00). Usually this suffices but even then somehow we seem to have more load than we think and the generator trips. 

Recently, while we were resolving an LEC issue at our house, we thought we had stumbled into a genius plan with one of the LEC technicians. By taking a small "commission" of $ 75.00 a field LEC technician who had come to replace our house meter said he would switch us to the Ministry of Gender's line. Apparently it is on 24/7. So, he did put us on the Gender line and we did seem to have 24/7 power but that lasted for a day. At least we seem to have LEC again intermittently and really randomly but we realise we got duped.

LEC is on sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes it's there in the morning. It is so random that one cannot even detect a pattern. We usually go home without having had LEC all day and buy fuel for the next day. 

As for the issue at our house, two days after the fact, we realised our meter had burnt. Out all day on a Sunday, the LEC did not come back on as it usually does (as we have observed a bit more of a clear pattern at our house) in the night. Two days later, we realised that it was only us. Drat! 

We filed a complaint at the LEC head office in Waterside on a Wednesday. Naturally, no emergency team came round and five days later, Haresh went to Waterside to try to get a technician to come to our aid. He found one but who bypassed the burnt meter and connected us directed to the LEC grid, illegally. This made matters even worse because the next day we were back to square one. The illegal connection gave out and we were again without light.  That evening we called up an old contact (Mr.  Dixon, the LEC Emergency Despatch officer) who sent over a team of technicians within the hour as promised. However when the team saw that an illegal connection had been made, they threatened to report it. Not only did it feel like an insult on injury since after complaining for 5 days and being without LEC, it also felt like bit of a joke - as if law and order is a gold standard in Liberia. Moreover, the fact that a technician pretending to be an LEC technician came over to help us out, goes to show how easily corruptible the LEC's infrastructure is. The emergency crew, three of them who came in a van, told us the meter would have to be replaced and they would be back the next day. We had to give them US $ 50.00 for their troubles.

The meter wasn't replaced until three days later after a lot of personal visits to the LEC, filing of an anomaly form, and personal follow ups at LEC Bushrod Island Tech department which is in charge of replacing meters. Even then, the LEC installation crew did not get it right the first time. Our meter was installed but there was no light. We rang up one of the installation crew's technician and asked him to come back. He crudely told us he had other work to do.  We had to telephone his supervisor to ask him to come back. 

  

Since our meter had to be registered, we could not buy credit the same day. A new meter comes with 20 units that are just about enough to make it through the evening. We asked our staff Emmanuel to follow up but he was brushed off and told the meter would not be registered until five days later. Annoyed, Haresh had to go in personally and after making some noise, the new meter was registered and he was able to buy credit.  

We still have to follow up on getting our 300+ units transferred from our old meter to the new one.

From the looks of it, electricity is going to continue to be inconsistent, extremely expensive and a  headache indefinitely.