By Fatou Sillah
The managing director of the Gambia National Water and Electricity Company, Galo Saidy, has warned that load sharing could return if further disruptions affect electricity imports from neighboring countries, particularly during periods of peak demand.
Speaking in an interview with West Coast Radio, Mr. Saidy said electricity demand in The Gambia had climbed to as much as 140 megawatts, an increase of roughly 35 percent since 2022. The surge in consumption, he said, has coincided with reduced electricity imports from Senegal and Guinea, putting additional strain on the country’s power supply.
Mr. Saidy said Senegal had recently experienced a technical problem at one of its power facilities, while Guinea’s ability to export electricity had been constrained by insufficient rainfall and low water levels at hydroelectric dams.
The pressure is most acute between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., he said, when electricity consumption is particularly high.
Senegal has since restored the affected plant, Mr. Saidy said, and NAWEC was not carrying out load sharing at the time of the interview. But he cautioned that the situation remained vulnerable to unexpected disruptions elsewhere in the regional power network.
“So as we speak, we don’t have any load sharing, but at peak periods tomorrow, or tonight, you never know; something can go wrong somewhere, and then they will ask us to drop, which means we have to do some load sharing,” he said.
Mr. Saidy said the difficulties were not unique to The Gambia, noting that several countries in the region, including Senegal, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, have also faced challenges meeting electricity demand.
He urged consumers to recognize the regional nature of the supply constraints, saying NAWEC would continue to manage the electricity available to the country while working to minimize disruptions.
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