Eastern Africa Member Countries to Buy and Sell Electricity From Each Other In New Plan

By Steve UMIDHA

The Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) will launch a day-ahead market in early 2025, allowing Eastern African countries to buy and sell electricity from each other, as the regional power system (EAPP) aims to connect 600 million people to clean energy by 2030.

As a result, EAPP said Monday that together with the 13 member countries, it is developing a trading platform, market rules, and a market operator. The new system will enable countries to trade multilaterally by leveraging existing and new power interconnections.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the ongoing EAPP conference, Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Opiyo Wandayi said that the anticipated launch of the centralized platform will unlock greater efficiency, transparency and competitiveness, and also enable countries optimize their energy sources, meet demand while fostering price discovery for fair and equitable trade.

“However, these opportunities will come with challenges that will require our collective resolution, namely harmonizing our regulatory frameworks, managing geopolitical dynamics and addressing technical and financial constraints. Kenya is committed to working with all of you to overcome these challenges,” offered Wandayi.

Hon. Okaasai Opolot, the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, said that the council will ensure that regional utilities and regulators will make the necessary resources available to facilitate the launch of the regional day ahead market by early 2025.

“In the spirit of cooperation, transparency, and accountability, we support EAPP to convene regular similar regional events to sustain a high-level dialogue on regional power trade, stimulate exchange of knowledge and lessons learnt, and increase coordination around regional power trade and regional integration,” he said.

Such a move, if successfully implemented by the regional member states, is further expected to drastically push down power tariffs which have been on the rise in the last few months due to rising demand. However, future electricity prices will likely remain volatile as markets adjust to the transition to cleaner energy sources.