WAPP advocates Regional Electricity Market
....as it holds 48th executive session
By Idu Jude
The West African Power Pool, WAPP, has advocated for the establishment of Regional Electricity Market, REM.
The organisation through its newly elected Chairman, Engineer Sule Ahmed of Nigeria, who is the managing director and chief executive officer of Transmission company of Nigeria, TCN, stated that REM is the ultimate goal set for WAPP by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government to serve as information co-ordination center, ICC.
He remarked that other departments in charge of activities related to the Regional Market have also done a lot towards establishing the Market in line with the WAPP Market Roadmap.
The new roadmap was announced in Lome, Togo, Wednesday, at the ongoing 15th Session of WAPP General Assembly for the year 2020 and to mark WAPP’s 48th Executive Board Meeting.
He said that the REM activities include the Implementation of the synchronization project of WAPP, Interconnected Power Systems and the improvement of Distribution Utilities Performance targeting distribution loss reduction among others.
The WAPP Chairman further noted that the power sector, as the engine of every economy, has been significantly impacted by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, leading to, in most cases, a reduction in electricity demand, financial stress and other disruptions. He however, commended the high level of work accomplished by WAPP despite the pandemic.
The pandemic he said, has introduced several challenges for everyone and institutions globally and WAPP is not exempted, as increasing unemployment and poverty have prevented many from paying their electricity bills. Payment delays and sometimes delinquency of utility bills by end-consumers he continued, is having detrimental effect along the electricity supply chain.
With the pandemic effect on the supply and demand side of the value chain and the already existing liquidity crises, strategic options he said, must be deployed to assist utilities bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s negative consequences.
He, however, expressed the confidence that one of the long-term benefits of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market and Interconnected Grid that WAPP is working to establish, will enhance the resilience of the electricity supply chain against such ravaging events as the COVID-19 Pandemic, and that WAPP would pursue this rigorously.
Engr Abdulaziz encouraged the sharing of strategies and collaboration among member utilities as well as the need to volunteer solutions that can further enhance WAPP resilience to the pandemic, noting that the realization of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market will equally contribute immensely to easing some of these challenges.
Giving the activity report of WAPP for the period January to December 2020, the Secretary General of WAPP, Mr. KI Apolonaire Seingui said that despite the negative impact of the pandemic, WAPP has continued to make giant strides towards the implementation of a competitive regional electricity market. He informed the board that the WAPP membership had increased to 36 member utilities with one observer.
The Sec. Gen. also spoke on the status of implementation of the various projects handled by the WAPP secretariat which are at various stages of execution; these include the 330kV WAPP North Core Interconnection Project linking Nigeria to Niger, Benin/Togo and Burkina Faso as well as the 330kV Median Core Interconnection Project that would connect Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire among others.
The WAPP Executive Board consists of 15members: eleven (11) permanent members, three (3) rotating members and one (1) honorary member. The WAPP Executive Board meeting precedes the Donors coordination Meeting and the WAPP General Assembly.
