Page 193 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 3

CPS1994 Xuan C.
integration can help improve one of the most fundamental and basic
measurements of energy access: the access to electricity.
Among all the development efforts involved in improving energy access,
one question always surfaces at the centre: Can the energy access
improvement keep up with the population growth in Africa? Africa is not only
one of the fastest growing continents for its economy development and
energy generation, it is also the region that experiencing the fasting growth
of population. It is imperative that we look at both the energy access and the
population growth at the same time in order to obtain a correct understanding
of the country’s situation of energy supply.
This paper first looks at how regional integration may improve electricity
production of the countries, and provides policy advises on enhancing the
regional market. Then, the effect of regional integration on electricity access
will be studied, before concluding findings and discussions are provided in the
end.

2. Methodology
Energy access is defined by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as "a
household having reliable and affordable access to both clean cooking
facilities and to electricity, which is enough to supply a basic bundle of energy
services initially, and then an increasing level of electricity over time to reach
the regional average" [1]. Energy serves as the backbone and driving force for
economy development, industrialization, and urbanization. The production of
energy, including electricity, is one of the key mandates to ensure sustainable
development and national security.
We looked at historical and internationally comparable data from four
main themes: the total electricity generation capacity, the growth of electricity
generation compared to population growth, historical progression of the
percentage of population with electricity access, and the urban-rural disparity
of electricity access. Data were collected from the African Energy Commission
(AFREC), International Energy Agency (IEA), U.S. Energy Information
Administration; and the UN Population Division. Data from 1980 to 2016 were
studied in order to create a temporal profile of the countries’ energy access
developments.
We recognized that no national electricity network will be complete
without a sufficient network to distribute the electricity it stores. In order to
maximize its positive impacts, regional mechanisms must be established to
make sure households and other end-users can access to this resource. In this
regard, we paid special attention to the effect of the five major regional power
pools in Africa on the integration of data generation and transformation. The
progress, challenges and solutions of improving access to electricity through
unconstructive regional integration were studied.

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