IEEE POWER ENGINEERING SOCIETY ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND POWER GENERATION COMMITTEE PANEL SESSION: AFRICAN AND MIDDLE EAST ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND POWER GENERATION ---STATUS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS, SUSTAINABILITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE, LARGE AND SMALL-SCALE DEVELOPMENTS, AND JOINT VENTURE AND CROSS-BO

South Africa continues to set the international benchmark for electricity prices. South Africa also provides the largest percentage of the electricity used on continental Africa. Based on this historical strength of favorable electricity prices, the plans are to even lower the prevailing electricity prices by adding more hydro-based renewable energy with mid merit and peaking support from environmentally friendly gas based generation. There exists a sufficient quantity of both gas and hydro at acceptable and affordable rates. The first building block of the continental grid would be the regional interconnected power system of the regional power pools. The next building phase will involve the use of extra high voltage DC for bulk power transfer between the participating regional power systems. The expected result is sharing in the diversity in primary energy sources; all contributing to a lower end user cost of electrical energy. Together with Africa’s richness in resources, the continent has the capability to become the energy intensive valley of the world; supporting the developed world in the ongoing battle with global warming.

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