"Power-sector reform and regulation in Africa offers detailed, up-to-date and original research into how governments and policymakers in six African countries have grappled with the development of their energy sectors. Arising out of a two-year peer-learning process involving senior executives in the electricity regulators in each country, the book contains an intelligent and clear analysis of the knowledge and shared experiences gathered in Africa by African scholars."--Publisher's note

Attracting private investment and delivery of services to the poor majority are priority goals for reforming and regulating the power sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. The licensing process and the tariff regime are important determinants of new investment in the electricity industry. For the licensing process to attract private investors, the procedures must be clear and must function efficiently and transparently, while the tariff regime must reflect actual costs. This book examines the extent to which the twin goals of attracting investment and providing energy to the poor are addressed by the existing legal and regulatory framework. By studying six countries in the east and southern African region, some helpful lessons worth sharing with other African countries are learned.

Today, the public sector in Africa, like in much of the rest of the world, is perceived as having led to inefficiency, waste, indifference and corruption in the provision of public services generally. The power supply sector is now experiencing a process of restructuring and reform, including privatization. The contributors to this volume, who are themselves involved in the policy process in their own countries, examine how far this movement towards restructuring and reform has proceeded in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.Based on empirical research, the authors have generated policy options and scenarios that are bound to be of vital interest to policy makers and implementers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Among the key topics dealt with are: the determinants of performance and efficiency; vertical and horizontal unbundling of power generation, distribution and sales; the role of independent power producers; the benefits and risks attendant on reform and privatization; and the legal and regulatory framework on which everything else depends.

As part of the wave of liberalisation sweeping most parts of the world, power sectors around the globe are coming under intense scrutiny, with some being restructured. This book presents six-country-case studies to examine the process and implementation experiences of power sector reform in Subsaharan Africa.

With the inclusion of access to energy in the sustainable development goals, the role of energy to human existence was finally recognized. Yet, in Africa, this achievement is far from realized. Omorogbe and Ordor bring together experts in their fields to ask what is stalling progress, examining problems from institutions catering to vested interests at the continent's expense, to a need to develop vigorous financial and fiscal frameworks. The ramifications and complications of energy law are labyrinthine: this volume discusses how energy deficits can burden disabled people, women, and children in excess of their more fortunate counterparts, as well as considering environmental issues, including the delicate balance between the necessity of water for drinking and cleaning and the use of water in industrial processes. A pivotal work of scholarship, the book poses pressing questions for energy law and international human rights.

Inadequate electricity services pose a major impediment to reducing extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Simply put, Africa does not have enough power. Despite the abundant low-carbon and low-cost energy resources available to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region s entire installed electricity capacity, at a little over 80 GW, is equivalent to that of the Republic of Korea. Looking ahead, Sub-Saharan Africa will need to ramp-up its power generation capacity substantially. The investment needed to meet this goal largely exceeds African countries already stretched public finances. Increasing private investment is critical to help expand and improve electricity supply. Historically, most private sector finance has been channeled through privately financed independent power projects (IPP), supported by nonrecourse or limited recourse loans, with long-term power purchase agreements with the state utility or another off-taker. Between 1990 and 2014, IPPs have spread across Sub-Saharan Africa and are now present in 17 countries. Currently, there are 125 IPPs, with an overall installed capacity of 10.7 GW and investments of $24.6 billion. However, private investment could be much greater and less concentrated. South Africa alone accounts for 67 IPPs, 4.3 GW of capacity and $14.4 billion of investments; the remaining projects are concentrated in a handful of countries. The objective of this study is to evaluate the experience of IPPs and identify lessons that can help African countries attract more and better private investment. At the core of this analysis is a reflection on whether IPPs have in fact benefited Sub-Saharan Africa, and how they might be improved. The analysis is based primarily on in depth case studies, carried out in five countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, which not only have the most numerous but also among the most extensive experience with IPPs.

This book contributes to the broader discussion on the development of renewable energy sources for a clean and sustainable energy to drive sustainable growth, energy security and sustainable development. Focusing on sub-Sahara African perspectives, with Ghana as the central case study, this book focuses on how regulatory regimes can be designed to achieve renewable energy targets for electricity production. Exploring the regulatory rationales behind the government’s intervention in the Ghanaian renewable energy sector, it examines whether the regulatory measures adopted by the Ghanaian government are sufficient to attract adequate investment to meet renewable energy integration targets. Assessing the regulatory frameworks of the renewable energy sectors of The Gambia and Nigeria, the book compares these countries to the regulatory approaches to renewable energy development in Ghana. Arguing that there are significant regulatory issues impeding renewable energy development in Ghana, with wider consequences across sub-Saharan Africa, the book suggests solutions which can establish a robust and an effective regulatory framework to achieve renewable energy developmental targets. A comprehensive read, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers of sustainable development, law and legal studies, environmental laws, development economics, applied industrial economics, energy security, African economy, public policy and regulatory policy. It will also be of interest to professionals and practitioners in policy circles and research think tanks.

The generation of electricity, while by no means the only energy sector to be taken into account in African countries, is crucial to the modern economy generally and to the future growth of manufacturing in particular. This study explores the problems of the power sector in Africa, including the tendency to ignore the electricity needs of the population at large. It stresses that power sector reforms are dependent on political stability, strong macro-economic demand, and foreign aid not distorting policy.