The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is set to achieve regional electricity interconnection among by the close of 2021, said a senior official.
the Director of Energy and Mines for the ECOWAS Commission Dabire Bayaornibe said that the target was to have all the 14 inland states interconnected by the end of this year to build a strong synergy in the supply of electricity for the development of member countries.
“All the inland member states of ECOWAS must be interconnected by December 2021, and we have started commissioning the Cote d’Ivoire-Sierra Leone-Liberia-Guinea line,” said Bayaornibe in an interview on Friday, May 21.
Bayaornibe added that,“Even if we do not meet the deadline, the time lag will not be more than one year to network all 14 inland member states, excluding Cape Verde, which is not yet connected to any of the countries.”
“With the interconnection, whenever some member states for example have temporary electricity supply shortages, those with excess supply can quickly supply to them,” said the official.
The Director of Energy and Mines for the ECOOWAS Commission believed that when the Interconnection is completed it would also quicken the process of connecting all households to electricity through connection to national grids or stand-alone systems to ensure universal access in the sub-region by 2030.
But to ensure a smooth interconnection process, the official said there was the need for harmonized standards across the region.
“We have a project of synchronization of the networks. When we want to join the two lines, you are going to have problems of synchronization, so we have a technical committee working on the technical side, to harmonize all the lines and installations under the project of synchronization of the networks,” he added.
He said the technical committee was also working on issues such a standard voltage regulation and frequency regulations for all member countries as well as the opening and closure of the lines among the countries.
Bayaornibe indicated that the end-users also needed consideration under the harmonization, and so committees were working on establishing ECOWAS norms and standards for equipment including light bulbs, fridges, cables, and all installations.
“The major equipment we are working on now is fridges- to have all households switch to energy-saving fridges because we will have more energy to save and share, so we are working on standards to adapt to some of those products that are good for end-users and the region,” he added.
At the moment, he said, “we are confident that we are driving towards our targets, and if there is an emergency issue, we all come together to see how to find solutions to them to keep the process on course.” Enditem
Source: Justice Lee Adoboe