The West African Power Pool (WAPP) says there ought to be purposeful coordination of power transmission, generation and distribution, to have a virile electricity market in West Africa.
Mr Usman Mohammed, the Chairman of WAPP, made the observation in a meeting in Abuja, explaining that WAPP is association of public and private power entities of ECOWAS.
According to him, WAPP covers ECOWAS countries of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, The Gambia Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Republic of Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
Mohammed who is also the Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)said that although electricity in the sub-region was connected it was not connected seamlessly.
“If we synchronise the network, all of us will benefit, we will have not only free flow of energy, we will also reduce cost of generation, transmission and distribution across West Africa,’’ he said.
Mohammed said that WAPP was mandated to establish a mechanism and institutional framework for integrating the national power systems of ECOWAS member states into a unified regional electricity market.
“A successfully synchronised and reliable WAPP Interconnected power system stands as one of TCN.
“My utmost desire to oversee a successful and sustained synchronization is a key component of regional electricity market roadmap.
“It is a motivating factor for my ever readiness to go the extra mile in my commitment to the WAPP agenda,’’ he said.
Mr Nazifi Abulkadiri, Director, WAPP Information and Coordination Centre, said that although some of the power systems were interconnected, the WAPP Interconnected power system had operated as three separate synchronous blocks over the years.
“The countries are Nigeria, Republic of Niger, part of Benin Republic, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, part of Togo, part of Mali, Senegal and part of Mali.
“The World Bank provided the WAPP with 21.5 million dollars under the WAPP Technical Assistance and Network Integration Project to, among others, support efforts to synchronise the WAPP Interconnected Power System,’’ he said.
