The Electricity and Energy Department has called for greater coordination from African states on energy infrastructure financing.

The continent’s leaders are attending the 5th Ordinary Session of the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Transport and Energy in Sandton, Johannesburg.

The four-day gathering is held under the theme “The Africa We Build: Transport and Energy as Catalysts for Africa’s Prosperity.”

Electricity and Energy’s Acting Director-General Subesh Pillay says that without coordination, African countries risk paying more to fund transmission infrastructure, especially when negotiating with global financiers.

Pillay says Africa continues to pay a burden of cost that is not really commensurate with the risk the continent actually provides.

He says, “The continent needs to stand up and raise this question about how we finance infrastructure and how the projects on the continent are risked so that we reduce the cost of producing the infrastructure, and this can only happen if we speak with one common unified African voice, and so these conversations are important because they help us to coordinate those voices, help us coordinate our effort as we begin to engage financing partners, infrastructure delivery partners.”

TRANSMISSION INFRASTRUCTURE

Pillay notes how gaps in transmission infrastructure continue to limit how energy is used across the continent.

He says the country alone has an estimated 4 000 megawatts of surplus electricity capacity, but much of it cannot be exported to the region due to limited grid interconnections.

Pillay says, “If you take Europe, for instance, Europe is very small and interconnected. One of the reasons why they can migrate to renewable energy so quickly is because, you know, if the sun is not shining in France, they can get electricity from other parts of Europe because they’re so compact and because they’ve invested in building the transmission infrastructure, and it’s a similar situation for Africa.”

He says, “If we don’t build out the transmission infrastructure, we’re not going to be able to optimise our latent resources in the renewable energy sector. So, you know, I look at it more as an opportunity for the continent to strengthen energy security rather than the risk to energy security.”

Pillay has also confirmed that Mozambique’s flagship hydropower station, Cahora Bassa, is up and running while a review of the Inga 3 hydropower project is currently underway.