Holistic approach for grid interconnection in Africa

This paper seeks to highlight and make recommendations to optimization planning of the African power pool initiatives. The increasing focus on regional power pool development suggests that a very focused strategy be effected for the planning and optimized operations of these systems. With a population of 13.4% of the world and a land area of 15%, Africa has only 2% of the world's industrial capacity. Its per capital income is only 15% of the world average and only consumes 3% of world energy. Many sub-Saharan and sub-equatorial African countries are poor and have limited electricity infrastructures. A survey of energy resources conducted by the World Energy Council (WEC) in 2004 shows that Africa has more than enough to satisfy all its energy requirements. These include 7.1% of the world's known oil reserves, 7.5% of those for gas, 10.6% of the coal and 13% of the hydro. The large potential for growth in this sector where the majority of people are still dependent on fuel wood for their energy requirements requires a balanced distributed generation strategy which takes into account future integration with small, midsize and large regional projects. This paper goes on to recommend a top down and bottom up (holistic approach) to regional cooperation and integration being contemplated by the various African power pools. A Primary focus is paid to the bottom-up approach through an evaluation of autonomous or non-autonomous microgrids used to provide electricity to local residents and which serve as basic building blocks for future system expansion. Issues such as system reliability, security, stability and controls associated with the transition and integration of micro grids to larger systems are addressed. Requirements for upgrading the power delivery infrastructure, promoting cross country interconnection, installing FACTS devices, updating SCADA/EMS system, enforcing system security requirements and data exchange capability are evaluated for the various power pools