Regional Electricity Market will lead to competitive pricing - ECOWAS

Prof Honore Bogler, the Chairman of ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA), said the launch of a Regional Electricity Market would bring all energy resources under one umbrella for competitive pricing.

He said the launch scheduled for June 2018 in Cotonu, Benin would help the region to develop effective framework and rules for investment in the energy sector, translating into reasonable development.

Prof Bogler said this in Accra in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the 11th Meeting of ERERA’s Consultative Committees of Regulators and Operators.

The event will bring various operators and regulatory bodies in the industry together to discuss how to ensure power sufficiency in the sub-region.

Prof Bogler said the market would rely on the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP), which has been developing the infrastructure and the high tension cables to link up the member states to enable fast and easy power distribution among them.

The Professor said the market would add on to the existing bilateral contracts on energy so that the power that is not sold in each member country can be sold on the market at a competitive price.

“The event will enable all new bilateral contracts to comply with the market rules and will provide a clear guideline for member states which want to sell power, to go through the Regional Transmission Lines,” he added.

He stated that there would be punishment to member country who flout the rules of the market and commended Ghana and Nigeria for putting the necessary requirements in place to start the event.

He said ERERA was mandated to draw all operators and regulators together under a well-crafted regulatory and legal framework for member states to commit themselves to ensuring that electricity production becomes cheaper and affordable to consumers and industry.

According to him, power would be managed in such a way that there would not be inequalities in pricing, stressing that WAPP would receive power from countries that would produce in excess and re-transmit to countries that need the excess.

“WAPP is building a new regional transmission lines to get connected to 14 ECOWAS countries and will be ready in two years to transmit electricity from one state to another.”

He gave assurance that there would be no power fluctuations in the West African sub-region when ERERA was done with its work.

Mr Aly Mar Ndiaye, ERERA Regulatory Council Member, said WAPP and ERERA are working hard to ensure the implementation of the market, which defines procedures in dealing with issues in the energy sector.

Mr Sedikou Douka, ECOWAS Commissioner for Energy and Mine, said their outfit was committed to define regional policies to address energy challenges within the region.

He said electricity inter-connection in the sub-region was crucial in increasing the capacity of electricity distribution of power.

The ECOWAS ERERA is the regulator of regional cross-border trade of electricity that establishes appropriate legal and institutional framework for the development of the electricity sector in West Africa.