Page 199 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 3

CPS1994 Xuan C.
to irrigation, agricultural production, and they are also more fragile in
withstanding natural or man-made disasters. This is one of the greatest
challenges facing energy access for African countries, and where effort,
resources and priority should be given.
The Africa Energy Sector Outlook 2040 projected that the average Africa
GDP growth will be 6.2%, while the UNPD projected that Africa will grow its
population as a rate of 2.3% per annum for the next 30 years [7]. Access to
electricity is expected to increase by at least 60% for all African countries,
which will benefit 800 million people who currently are out of access, with an
estimated cost of US$ 3.5 billion per year [3]. With an average price tag of only
US$ 4.3 per person a year, it is an investment well worth its value.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
A regionally planned energy network has a many significant benefits over
national ones. It diversifies the energy resources, which make the network
more secure and reliable for all its users. It can attract more private investors,
which reduces cost for establishing these infrastructures by their hosting
countries. It can adapt to economies of both small and large sizes, and
provides affordable energy in a greater geographical coverage.
Regional energy infrastructure and integration can also help spearheading
the development of renewable energy, which in many areas are abundant in
rural areas. Perhaps one of the best examples of renewable energy regional
collaboration can be found in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is rich in hydropower, with an
estimate of 60,000 megawatts (MW) of potentials for electricity generation [8].
The majority of this huge potential of hydropower, where hydraulic dams will
be built, is also located very close to the border of Sudan, South Sudan and
Kenya. At this moment, the biggest project in the country, the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam (GERD), with a 6,000 MW generation capacity, is more than
60% completed. Ethiopia has already started to export electricity to Sudan (up
to 100 MW), Djibouti (up to 60 MW), and with deals constructed with Kenya,
Tanzania and South Sudan as well [9]. These distribution systems can greatly
improve the rural access rate of not only one country, but the whole East Africa
region. Due to the temporal cyclical patterns of hydropower generation, a
regional effort to coordinate and distribute the power is the best practice for
improving access and utilization for all the regional partners involved.
It has become an African consensus that progressive planning and
implementation of regional energy strategies can help boost electricity
generation and provide an overall universal access network for electricity. By
forming larger energy markets, the regional power pools reduce market
fragmentation, attracts private and public investors, diversify the sources of
electricity, and enable countries to collaborate more closely on other energy-
related and economic activities as well. Regional integration is the key to

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