Explore how Africa can learn from the EU's extensive electricity network to create regional corridors that enhance energy distribution, lower costs, and support renewable energy integration.
Image: Supplied
The EU’s electricity network spans over 11 million kilometres, making it one of the most extensive and resilient in the world.
Today, these corridors enable energy to flow efficiently across member states, lowering costs whilst managing rising demand.
Importantly, it also allows renewables like wind power in the North Sea or solar in Southern Europe to be distributed widely, smoothing variability and strengthening the overall system.
For Africa, where unfortunately many power systems remain perpetually fragmented and underfunded, Europe’s regional power distribution corridors offer a compelling blueprint.
At its core, grid interconnection is about strength through collaboration.
One way to understand it is to think of electricity infrastructure like transport infrastructure. National distribution networks are the local and secondary roads that serve towns and cities.
Regional transmission corridors, by contrast, are the highways, high-capacity routes that connect countries, enable trade, and keep economies moving.
Europe has invested heavily in these “electricity highways”: high-voltage transmission corridors that link national grids into a single interconnected system. This allows power to flow seamlessly across borders, strengthening each country’s grid by giving it access to external supply when needed.
And whilst not perfect, nothing ever is, it does offer exceptional resilience and flexibility.
The good news Africa has already begun this journey. In Southern Africa, the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) enables electricity trading between countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Established in 1995, under the Southern African Development Community (SADC), it brings together the national electricity companies of twelve Southern African countries to form a common power grid and electricity market
In practice, SAPP has enabled countries like South Africa, Zambia, Lesotho and Mozambique to export electricity to neighbours, while smaller economies benefit from access to more stable and affordable supply. It is a cornerstone of regional energy cooperation, though challenges remain around infrastructure investment and governance.
Strengthening regional electricity corridors would allow Africa to better leverage its diverse and unevenly distributed energy resources.
East Africa, for instance, is rich in hydropower and geothermal energy, particularly in countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia. These renewable resources could support industrial growth and energy security far beyond their borders if strong transmission corridors were in place.
During periods of power shortages in Southern Africa, clean energy from the East could help stabilise supply, reduce reliance on emergency generation, and lower emissions.
Furthermore, from an economic perspective, larger, integrated electricity markets can also lower costs. Shared infrastructure reduces duplication, enables economies of scale, and makes renewable energy projects more bankable. This offers a practical, interim solution while long-term investment is still developing and pending.
The challenge is not technology. High-voltage transmission solutions, grid management systems, and interconnection expertise already exist. Infrastructure suppliers, developers, and utilities have the technical capability to deliver these projects.
The primary barrier is funding, and, closely linked to that, coordination. Building transmission lines across thousands of kilometres and multiple jurisdictions require significant capital investment and strong political alignment.
Regional bodies such as the African Union and SADC provide a framework, but progress depends on collective commitment.
Large-scale visions such as the Great Inga hydropower in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) illustrate both the opportunity and the challenge.
The Inga Project it has been on the drawing board for decades, with multiple phases proposed, re-scoped, and delayed. The first two dams (Inga I and II) were completed in the 1970s and 1980s, but they only tapped a small fraction of the Congo River’s immense hydropower potential.
Since then, the larger vision, Inga III and ultimately the Grand Inga scheme, has been repeatedly announced, negotiated, and postponed due to financing hurdles, governance challenges, and shifting political priorities.
The above is a clear example of the continent’s continued obstacles however also clearly illustrates of Africa and how it will gain tremendously from regional electricity corridors.
Taru Madangombe is the Vice President for Power and Grid Segment, MEA at Schneider Electric.
Taru Madangombe is the Vice President for Power and Grid Segment, MEA at Schneider Electric.
Image: Supplied.
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