IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v190y2024ics0301421524001812.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are West Africa's policy, planning, and regulatory frameworks missing the harmonization piece of the power pooling-renewable energy puzzle?

Author

Listed:
  • Bissiri, Mounirah
  • Pereira da Silva, Patrícia
  • Moura, Pedro
  • Figueiredo, Nuno Carvalho

Abstract

Sound policy, planning and quality regulation are cornerstones to co-creating national markets conducive to the implementation of an efficient regional electricity market. This study examines the policy, planning and regulatory substance and processes in the West African Power Pool, focusing on four countries, namely Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Mali. Through its specialized institutions, the region seeks to leverage shared resources and complementarities to scale up sustainable electricity generation and enhance cross-border electricity trade. The study, however, reveals half-hearted renewable energy (RE) policies, weak RE investment planning and inconsistent regulation on the one hand, and on the other hand, a lack of harmonization of regulatory frameworks which are often misaligned with the regional vision. This translates into missed opportunities to attract the necessary investments in sustainable power infrastructure, particularly from the private sector, and to mutually develop a regional market capable of tackling the long-standing challenge of access to reliable and affordable electricity amid the climate crisis. This can be reversed if countries are fully committed and duly equipped to improve their policies and planning processes, and adjust and harmonize their regulatory frameworks under the guidance, support, and leadership of the regional entities.

Suggested Citation

  • Bissiri, Mounirah & Pereira da Silva, Patrícia & Moura, Pedro & Figueiredo, Nuno Carvalho, 2024. "Are West Africa's policy, planning, and regulatory frameworks missing the harmonization piece of the power pooling-renewable energy puzzle?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:190:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524001812
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524001812
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114161?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dioha, Michael O. & Kumar, Atul, 2020. "Exploring the energy system impacts of Nigeria's Nationally Determined Contributions and low-carbon transition to mid-century," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    2. Pineau, Pierre-Olivier, 2008. "Electricity sector integration in West Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 210-223, January.
    3. Ayuketah, Yvan & Gyamfi, Samuel & Diawuo, Felix Amankwah & Dagoumas, Athanasios S., 2023. "A techno-economic and environmental assessment of a low-carbon power generation system in Cameroon," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    4. Assoumou, Edi & McIsaac, Florent, 2022. "Côte d'Ivoire's electricity challenge in 2050: Reconciling economic development and climate commitments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    5. Nadia S. Ouedraogo, 2017. "Modeling sustainable long-term electricity supply-demand in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-23, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Gnansounou, Edgard & Bayem, Herman & Bednyagin, Denis & Dong, Jun, 2007. "Strategies for regional integration of electricity supply in West Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4142-4153, August.
    7. Kazimierczuk, Agnieszka H., 2019. "Wind energy in Kenya: A status and policy framework review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 434-445.
    8. Oyewo, Ayobami Solomon & Aghahosseini, Arman & Ram, Manish & Breyer, Christian, 2020. "Transition towards decarbonised power systems and its socio-economic impacts in West Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1092-1112.
    9. Vik, Jostein & Melås, Anders Mahlum & Stræte, Egil Petter & Søraa, Roger Andre, 2021. "Balanced readiness level assessment (BRLa): A tool for exploring new and emerging technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    10. Ouedraogo, Nadia S., 2017. "Modeling sustainable long-term electricity supply-demand in Africa," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 1047-1067.
    11. Bissiri, M. & Moura, P. & Figueiredo, N.C. & Silva, P.P., 2020. "Towards a renewables-based future for West African States: A review of power systems planning approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    12. Eberhard, Anton & Gratwick, Katharine Nawaal, 2011. "IPPs in Sub-Saharan Africa: Determinants of success," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5541-5549, September.
    13. Ondraczek, Janosch, 2013. "The sun rises in the east (of Africa): A comparison of the development and status of solar energy markets in Kenya and Tanzania," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 407-417.
    14. Nadia S. Ouedraogo, 2017. "Modeling sustainable long-term electricity supply–demand in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 023, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Azad Singh Bali & Michael Howlett & Jenny M Lewis & M Ramesh, 2021. "Procedural policy tools in theory and practice [The stick, the carrot, and other strategies: A theoretical analysis of governmental intervention]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 40(3), pages 295-311.
    16. Trotter, Philipp A. & McManus, Marcelle C. & Maconachie, Roy, 2017. "Electricity planning and implementation in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1189-1209.
    17. Bekker, Bernard & Eberhard, Anton & Gaunt, Trevor & Marquard, Andrew, 2008. "South Africa's rapid electrification programme: Policy, institutional, planning, financing and technical innovations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3115-3127, August.
    18. Wikus Kruger & Anton Eberhard, 2018. "Renewable energy auctions in sub‐Saharan Africa: Comparing the South African, Ugandan, and Zambian Programs," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bissiri, M. & Moura, P. & Figueiredo, N.C. & Silva, P.P., 2020. "Towards a renewables-based future for West African States: A review of power systems planning approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    2. Trotter, Philipp A. & Maconachie, Roy & McManus, Marcelle C., 2018. "Solar energy's potential to mitigate political risks: The case of an optimised Africa-wide network," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 108-126.
    3. Bissiri, Mounirah & Moura, Pedro & Perez, Ricardo Cunha & Figueiredo, Nuno Carvalho & da Silva, Patrícia Pereira, 2024. "Generation capacity expansion planning with spatially-resolved electricity demand and increasing variable renewable energy supply: Perspectives from power pooling in West Africa," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    4. Xinyu Han & Rongrong Li, 2019. "Comparison of Forecasting Energy Consumption in East Africa Using the MGM, NMGM, MGM-ARIMA, and NMGM-ARIMA Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    5. Trotter, Philipp A., 2022. "The slow transition to solar, wind and other non-hydro renewables in Africa – Responding to and building on a critique by Kincer, Moss and Thurber (2021)," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    6. Oyewo, Ayobami Solomon & Aghahosseini, Arman & Ram, Manish & Breyer, Christian, 2020. "Transition towards decarbonised power systems and its socio-economic impacts in West Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1092-1112.
    7. Adeoye, Omotola & Spataru, Catalina, 2019. "Modelling and forecasting hourly electricity demand in West African countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 311-333.
    8. Trotter, Philipp A. & McManus, Marcelle C. & Maconachie, Roy, 2017. "Electricity planning and implementation in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1189-1209.
    9. Bissiri, Mounirah & Moura, Pedro & Figueiredo, Nuno Carvalho & Pereira da Silva, Patrícia, 2020. "A geospatial approach towards defining cost-optimal electrification pathways in West Africa," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    10. Nieves, J.A. & Aristizábal, A.J. & Dyner, I. & Báez, O. & Ospina, D.H., 2019. "Energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions analysis in Colombia: A LEAP model application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 380-397.
    11. Mina Masoomi & Mostafa Panahi & Reza Samadi, 2022. "Demand side management for electricity in Iran: cost and emission analysis using LEAP modeling framework," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 5667-5693, April.
    12. Riva, Fabio & Gardumi, Francesco & Tognollo, Annalisa & Colombo, Emanuela, 2019. "Soft-linking energy demand and optimisation models for local long-term electricity planning: An application to rural India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 32-46.
    13. Nadia S. Ouedraogo, 2017. "Energy futures modelling for African countries: LEAP model application," WIDER Working Paper Series 056, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Nyiko Worship Hlongwane & Olebogeng David Daw, 2023. "Renewable Electricity Consumption and Economic Growth: A Comparative Study of South Africa and Zimbabwe," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(3), pages 197-206, May.
    15. Prasad, Ravita D. & Raturi, Atul, 2019. "Low carbon alternatives and their implications for Fiji's electricity sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-19.
    16. Ramchandra Bhandari & Surendra Pandit, 2018. "Electricity as a Cooking Means in Nepal—A Modelling Tool Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Ivan Darma Wangsa & Tao Ming Yang & Hui Ming Wee, 2018. "The Effect of Price-Dependent Demand on the Sustainable Electrical Energy Supply Chain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, June.
    18. Malka, Lorenc & Bidaj, Flamur & Kuriqi, Alban & Jaku, Aldona & Roçi, Rexhina & Gebremedhin, Alemayehu, 2023. "Energy system analysis with a focus on future energy demand projections: The case of Norway," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    19. Paul Bertheau & Ayobami Solomon Oyewo & Catherina Cader & Christian Breyer & Philipp Blechinger, 2017. "Visualizing National Electrification Scenarios for Sub-Saharan African Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    20. Wale Arewolo & Philipp Blechinger & Catherina Cader & Yannick Perez, 2019. "Seeking workable solutions to the electrification challenge in Nigeria: Minigrid, reverse auctions and institutional adaptation," Post-Print halshs-01989683, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:190:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524001812. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.