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“TO HARNESS AFRICA’S HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL, FINANCING FLEXIBILITY IS ESSENTIAL”COMMITTED EXPERTS As full-line supplier with a vast product and service portfolio, Voith covers the entire life cycle and all components of large and small hydropower plants. We are ready not only to manufacture the equipment required but also to guarantee a long-lasting presence on site, working closely with customers to transfer knowledge, build skills and ensure that once a plant is completed, it runs effectively and sustainably. Hydropower plant Mount Coffee was built on the Saint Paul River in the 1960s. It was the West African nation’s largest at the time, but sustained extensive damage during the civil war and after looting ravaged the electrical and mechanical components, leaving only parts of the dam and the steel penstock intact. This proved to be a huge setback to the country’s economic and social progress, leaving Liberia’s capital city Monrovia reliant on costly, non-renewable diesel-power generation to meet its energy needs from 2006 onwards.In 2013 Voith received orders to modernize the turbines and deliver new generators, control technology as well as electrical and mechanical power plant equipment. On completion, the modernized plant will also be fitted with Voith’s automation system, including a digital governor and state-of-the-art control system. The training of skilled personnel is already underway and the first team of new Liberian Electricity Corporation (LEC) employees being trained for operation and maintenance of the plant is done at Voith’s head office in Germany. In the end, Mount Coffee will again play a key role in improving the reliability and scope of Liberia’s electricity supply and Monrovia’s population of over one million will have access to reliable energy.GRID STABILITYWith its major impact on South Africa’s energy supply, pumped-storage power plant Ingula in South Africa is another prime example of such a positive local development. As with Mount Coffee, the project has involved employing and training local staff to run the plant once it is completed. Another important element at Ingula was our participation in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), which is designed to ensure foreign firms invest to help grow the local economy by sourcing products and services from local 044 SUSTAINABLE ENERGY