The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) has organised a series of specialised trainings to support the African power pools in enhancing their transmission network planning capacity. This is vital preparation for Africa’s Continental Master Plan (CMP) which is currently being developed under AUDA-NEPAD’s leadership.

The CMP is the blueprint of the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) and plays an integral part in analysing and solving Africa’s energy challenge. It links generation and transmission plans within and between the regional power pools and the AU Member States to identify Africa’s priority energy infrastructure. This will help to promote electricity trade between regions and reap economic and financial benefits of interconnections. Alongside partners like the EU Global Technical Assistance Facility for Sustainable Energy (EU-GTAF), IRENA and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), GET.transform supported advancing the continental grid capacity expansion planning under the CMP.

GET.transform contracted Energynautics to provide a part of the corresponding capacity trainings for the five power pools CAPP, SAPP, EAPP, COMELEC and WAPP. Through several training sessions, Energynautics highlighted key aspects of:

• Capacity expansion and dispatch optimisation
• Grid adequacy and grid expansion planning
• Dynamic power system simulation studies
• Renewable energy modelling for integration and planning studies
• Cross-border market structures and TSO cooperation in other regions of the world

The trainings helped to identify the priority transmission interconnector infrastructure for the continental power system and analyse stability impacts of different renewable energy generation expansion scenarios.

View into the training room with the participants of the African Power Pools © AUDA-NEPAD