In Koforidua in the Eastern Region, a five-day seminar has begun to discuss the initiatives of the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) to guarantee stable electricity supply and distribution in the sub-region.
Energy communication specialists from the ECOWAS member nations of Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, Mali, and Burkina Faso are taking part in the conference.
The course will also go over the communication expert network programmes and fundamental technical rules of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA).
The West African power pool master plan overview, the project potential for each nation, an update on the subregion's energy market, and the creation of uniform criteria for licence granting for authorization to participate in.
Significance
In order to make it competitive for energy producers in the subregion to market what they generated, West Africa will create a common energy market, according to ERERA Chairman Professor Honore Bogler.
He said that member nations will likewise benefit from cheap and accessible power.
He said that the creation of the common market was essential because, although some nations had enough of energy, some had little, and the others had none at all.
He claimed that as a result, nations that bought electricity had to sign bilateral contracts with the producers of that power, often at the expense of the nations doing the buying.
He said that the market would ensure that nations without access to energy may buy from the pool without necessarily entering into bilateral buying arrangements.
He said that the seminar will educate the sub-power region's users about the benefits of the single market.
"We want the sub-electrical region's users to be aware of the ECOWAS energy market's creation, which will guarantee a reasonable supply of reliable energy.
In order to avoid false information about the matter being spread on social media, we will also make sure that proper information is supplied "Professor Bogler furthermore
System
Dr. Haliru Dikko, the ERERA Commissioner and Council Member, stated that the system's overall goal is to secure the interconnectedness of power purchase agreements, allowing nations like Nigeria to sell power to a far-off nation like Senegal.
He stated that his company will provide technical help to both energy providers and customers, but cautioned that this would require additional expenditure.
A unified platform for efficient energy supply and consumption across the sub-region will be developed, according to ERERA's Energy Communications Officer, Owen Thompson.