Members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are currently formalizing the creation framework of an energy market within the region, Ecobank revealed.

This trade framework of the regional electricity market will involve the West African Power Pool and the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority. It will replace all existing bilateral electricity exchange agreements while putting in place a mechanism that will regulate the implementation of cross-border electricity projects.

The new regional market is expected to be launched by June 2018. In the meantime, electricity trade between member countries will be restricted to the existing ones. However, countries should harmonize the transmission lines voltage (the 225 kV and 330 kV lines being the most used) or install transformers to adjust this voltage difference. Differences in electricity costs will be one of the issues that the countries should address to achieve a unified market.

Let’s recall that ECOWAS’ member states include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Gwladys Johnson Akinocho