Projects under way to develop integrated regional power market

As power delivery takes centre stage, more than 70 power projects are being planned for West Africa. According to Mator Diop, sales manager for West and Central Africa at General Electric, a total of 28 transmission lines and 47 power generation projects are to be developed in the region to bring full interconnectivity to the 14 countries involved in the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP). WAPP is a co-operative agreement between 14 countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo – working towards an integrated regional power market. About 7% of West Africa electricity is already traded in the region with Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire the main exporters, while countries like Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Liberia import. “Projects are under way to develop synchronised systems and the physical interconnections between countries,” said Diop. “The goal is

to see full interconnection between all 14 countries within the next two years.” According to Bernard Modey, a senior power sector consultant at ICF, an energy and services company, considering that trade is ongoing the WAPP will simply synchronise what is already happening while increasing the import and export of power. He said WAPP countries struggling to generate power would be able to import affordably from those with excess capacity. At the same time, it would also make power generation more sustainable as it would allow for some of the dependence on baseload from oil and coal fired power plants to be displaced with cleaner sources such as solar, wind and hydropower. The World Bank has dedicated $750 million to date to support the WAPP in creating an integrated regional power market. Diop said the vision being sought through WAPP was the delivery of a modern energy sector capable of meeting the region’s growing demand.