Thirteen African countries have inched closer to cross-border power trading after agreeing to set up a market operator that will control the buying and selling of electricity within the bloc.
The Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) is expected to go live in the first quarter of 2025, enabling the 13 member States to buy and sell electricity from one another.
The regional power pool offers Kenya a window for cheaper power to offset local generation from expensive sources, particularly thermal.
Kenya is a member of the EAPP alongside 12 other countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Others are Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
During the EAPP 19th Council of Ministers and 31st Steering Committee meetings held in Kampala this week, the council approved the establishment of the market operator.
The operator will begin with a skeleton staff of four with more to be recruited once financing mechanisms for sustaining its operations are established.
“The Council of Ministers endorses the establishment of an independent market operator to initiate market operations activities, marking a significant step towards achieving a transparent and resilient energy market in the region,” the council said.
The operator will play a similar role to what the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) was gazetted to do in December 2021.
The operator, once fully constituted, will enable power producers within the EAPP to buy and sell electricity across the region where there is demand.
Established in 2005, EAPP is a regional institution formed to coordinate cross-border power trade and grid interconnection among nations.
But while some countries generate sufficient power to sustain their needs, others have huge deficits in power generation leading to load shedding.
The 13 countries have, however, faced challenges of trading power with each other due to a lack of transmission infrastructure to connect their grids.
This has accelerated the race by these countries to build new high-capacity transmission lines to connect their grids.
The eventual aim of the EAPP is also to connect to the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) via Tanzania. This will further open up opportunities for trading power with countries further south.
