Efficient and cleaner energy is vital to Africa's fight against poverty, yet the proportion of people still dependent on inefficient and polluting traditional energy sources is higher than any other continent. As the geography of energy supply options does not correspond to political boundaries, the cheapest and cleanest energy source for a given area may well lie across the national border.

A study from the World Energy Council charts progress towards energy integration across the continent and argues that overcoming energy poverty requires reducing dependence on traditional fuels. Meeting the power needs of Africa’s ever-expanding cities requires large-scale provision of commercial energy which only regionally integrated schemes can provide.

Africa produces seven percent of the world’s commercial energy but accounts for only three percent of global commercial energy consumption. Most of the commercial energy is exported to other continents, sometimes with minimal benefit to local populations. Forty percent of Africa’s energy comes from woodfuel, used with low efficiency and with associated environmental and health burdens.

Use of modern energy use is highly concentrated. South Africa accounts for nearly half of all the electricity consumed in Africa and Egypt, Libya and Algeria for a further 30 percent. Between them, these four states use 74 per cent of all the oil consumed in Africa.

Planning has taken place within the artificial boundaries imposed by colonialism. The case for rethinking this approach is powerful:

• Most national markets are too small to justify the investment needed to develop particular energy supply opportunities.
• As markets mature and competition is introduced, the integration of small neighbouring markets can provide the scale necessary for competition to be effective.
• In other continents cross-border energy supply often also enhances diversification of energy sourcing – a key component of energy security.
• Joint energy projects can help build closer ties between countries through closer collaboration.
• Developing external markets would end the wasteful flaring of gas: in 1999 58 per cent of sub-Saharan gas production was flared.

Oil and gas are concentrated in north and west Africa, hydroelectric potential in central and east Africa and coal in southern Africa. It is this pattern of distribution and of energy use that underlies the case for regional, and ultimately continent-wide, integration of energy development.

Progress towards integration is being made. North Africa’s oil, gas and electric grids are interconnected with onward links to Europe. The Southern African Power Pool links countries from South Africa to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and from Mozambique to Angola. East African countries have long shared hydroelectric capacity. Bilateral interconnections in west Africa are planned through the West African Gas Pipeline.

Integration of infrastructure development is a priority of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the African Development Bank is embarking on a study of regionally integrated infrastructure. Maintaining this momentum requires:

• developing more reliable energy data to serve as a basis for policy formulation and investment.
• Ensuring information is not confined to energy professionals: the general public needs to be aware of energy policy choices
• remembering  that energy supply projects will not, by themselves, cause economic development without complementary measures to boost local processing and capacity building
• ensuring security and stability: energy co-operation can be nurtured at the technical and operational level, despite political tensions and even in the face of war.

Source(s):
‘The potential for regionally integrated energy development in Africa: a discussion document’, World Energy Council, 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Canadian International Development Agency

id21 Research Highlight: 19 October 2005

Further Information:
Wale Shasanya
World Energy Council
5th Floor, Regency House
1-4 Warwick Street
London W1B 5LT
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7734 5996
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7734 5926
Contact the contributor: info@worldenergy.org

World Energy Council, UK

Other related links:
WEC Statement 2005: Delivering Sustainability

African Energy Policy Research Network

'Putting energy at the heart of poverty reduction'

'The challenges facing landlocked developing countries'