Source: Ministry of Commerce of P.R.C. Author: Anonymous
Date: April 3rd, 2015

African countries agreed on interconnecting their national power grids by 2020, an officer with New Partnership for Africa’s Development (also known as NEPAD) said.

Head of NEPAD Mosad Elmissiry said that four regional grid corridors in the continent will jointly work to set up a pan-Africa grid construction company, based in Nairobi.

"When connected it will create a continent-wide power market that enables countries with any surplus to sell to those with deficits," said Elmissiry during a seminar for the validation of all the sustainable energy initiatives.

Elmissiry said, “The connectivity of power grids installed in the south, west, middle and north of Africa will allow countries with abundant electricity to sell to those with shortages. The South and North power corridors will link with the network in Egypt, consequently forming the first power pool”.

“Power grids in Kenya and Tanzania are already interconnected in fact and in the coming days, countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Sudan will be the first on the move”. An official with NEPAD said, the initiative will be mainly acted on the basis of bilateral agreements.

The continent produces 120,000 megawatts approximately, with South Africa and Egypt as the largest generators. Elmissiry said, the Inga Hydroelectric Power Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the capability of generating 40,000 megawatts of power, the cheapest-priced among all the countries in the continent. However the project does not even produce a merely 1,000 megawatts, but DRC government plans to raise it to 4,500 megawatts over the following five years.

Elmissiry said thatthe leaders of the Africa Union countries promised to supply 15,000 megawatts in total in five years.

(By: Ma Bo from China Business News)