Analysis of the costs of fuel supply for wood-fired electric power plants in rural Liberia

Technical Report · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:5429839

Perlack, R D; Barron, W F; Samuels, G; Rhinelander, R E

In recent years the quality of rural electric services in Liberia has been declining and the future economic viability of these power stations is a growing concern. Each of the ten operating and each of the planned rural public power stations is designed to operate exclusively on gas oil (diesel fuel). Fuel expenditures by the Liberian Electricity Corporation (LEC) for the rural public stations represent a major and growing burden on the financially hardpressed utility. Liberia has two potentially significant alternatives to oil-fired electric power for its up-country towns: small (1 to 5 MW) hydroelectric facilities, and wood-fired steam or gasifier plants (0.2 to 2 MW). Although small hydroelectric facilities appear viable for several locations, they cannot serve all locations and will require thermal back-up. The economics of supplying wood to a rural electric power plant or rural grid were evaluated under several scenarios involving: (1) different sources of the feedstock, and (2) differences in wood supply requirements for plants based on the use of steam or gasifier technology, and variation in the utilization level for such plants. With a few minor exceptions, wood energy supplies are plentiful throughout Liberia. Liberia has four different potential sources of wood fuel supply: the commercial cutting of retired rubber trees; the harvesting of secondary growth forest just prior to the land returning to temporary cultivation as part of a system of shifting agriculture; adding to the system of shifting agriculture the planting of fast-growing wood species and harvesting these trees when the land again is brought back under cultivation (generally after about five to seven years); and the establishment of commercial short-rotation wood energy plantations. Results indicate that the use of wood to fuel rural power stations is a viable economic option.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5429839
• Report Number(s): ORNL-6136; ON: DE85015026
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200103 -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Waste-Fueled Systems
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
296001* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Electric Power Generation-- (-1989)
AFRICA
COST
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
LIBERIA
POWER PLANTS
RURAL AREAS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
WOOD FUELS
WOOD-FUEL POWER PLANTS