Towards a renewables-based future for West African States: A review of power systems planning approaches

West African countries face a long-standing energy access issue stemming from historical low generation capacity, poor planning processes and financially-constrained power utilities. Within current frameworks, progress towards achieving universal access to electricity is slow. However, the region displays a huge endowment of renewables which clearly appear to be paramount to expanding electricity generation capacity and meeting an ever-rising demand. The clear evidence of the crescent role of utility-scale expansion of renewables-based generation has called for collective action in the region to improve electricity access and drive economic growth. Therefore, research on the design and implementation of a renewables-based future for West Africa is needed. However, the literature on electricity planning considering the use of renewables in West Africa is scarce and mostly limited to least-cost and/or low-resolution modeling. Through an exploratory approach, the present study contributes to enhancing current knowledge by capturing the essence of the existing literature on generation capacity expansion modeling approaches and critically analyzing their shortcomings to define potential improvement avenues for future research. Advancing academic knowledge in such direction would provide sound scientific evidence to key national and regional stakeholders in order to take a step closer towards building a resilient future for West African countries.