This article has been supplied.As Africa strives to achieve universal access to electricity while supporting economic growth and industrialisation, regional power pools are increasingly being recognised as one of the continent's most powerful tools for accelerating electrification, enhancing energy security, and unlocking investment.
Despite possessing some of the world's largest renewable and conventional energy resources, Africa remains home to more than 600 million people without access to electricity. At the same time, many countries continue to experience generation shortages, transmission constraints, and rising energy costs. Bridging this gap will require not only significant investment in generation capacity but also greater regional cooperation and cross-border energy trade.
Regional power pools offer a practical and proven solution.
By connecting national electricity networks and enabling countries to trade power across borders, regional power pools allow nations to share resources, improve system reliability, optimise generation assets, and reduce the cost of electricity supply. Rather than each country attempting to build sufficient generation capacity independently, interconnected markets enable surplus electricity in one region to support demand in another.
