By Olamilekan FAWAS
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has concluded plans to inaugurate a regional electricity market to enhance cross-border electricity trade among member states.
The Chairman, ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) Prof. Honore Bogler, disclosed this on Wednesday in Cotonou, Benin at the 12th meeting of ERERA’s Consultative Committees of Regulators and Operators in the electricity sub-region.
He said a taskforce was constituted in 2017 to produce a comprehensive report on operation of the electricity market.
According to him, the taskforce is also saddled with the responsibility to review the document on procedures for access to the West African Power Pool (WAPP) transmission services.
Earlier, the Chairman of the taskforce, Mr Kouadio Djaha, Energy operator from Cote d’Ivoire, said the taskforce with members from the 15 ECOWAS member states had put up a comprehensive report on the take-off of the electricity market.
“The taskforce was constituted pursuant to Article 8.2 of Directive of June 21, 2013, on the organisation of the regional electricity market,
“The directive provides that WAPP shall, in conjunction with the Transmission System Operators (TSO) develop a standard connection and use of network agreement for access to the regional transmission network,
“While ERERA shall approve the standard connection and use of network agreement after consultation with the national regulatory authorities,’’ he said.
Djaha explained that the taskforce had held four previous meetings to review the WAPP document and called on member states to key into the project.
The Assistant General Manager, Regulation, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Ali Ahmad, who is also the Vice Chairman of the taskforce, expressed optimism on the take-off of the regional electricity market.
TBI Africa reports that the official launch of the ECOWAS regional electricity market (first phase) is scheduled for Friday, June 29 in Cotonou.
The Regional Electricity Market is planned in three phases with the first phase being transitional for two years, while the second phase will commence by 2020 with a competitive market.
The third phase is a long term vision dependent on the availability of adequate regional transmission capacity and enough generation reserve in Member States.
The week-long meeting is being attended by electricity regulators and operators from the sub-region, including officials from TCN and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) from Nigeria.
