Africa-Press – Botswana. The SADC Secretariat is considering convening a high-level ministerial dialogue later this year to establish a common position on a number of common issues among member states, such as energy supply security as well as access to reliable energy.
Speaking at the Regional Energy Regulators Associations (RERA) of Southern Africa conference in Gaborone on Wednesday, SADC executive secretary, Mr Elias Magosi said the region was well endowed with energy resources such as solar, wind and hydropower as well as hydrocarbons like natural gas and coal.
He said despite these, the region had mostly been operating with insufficient power supply, influenced by an increasing and widespread energy demand coupled with delayed and insufficient development of energy infrastructure for both power generation and transmission.
“Added to this is member states’ limited ability or reluctance to invest in the much-needed generation and transmission projects due to their related huge investment costs,” he said.
Mr Magosi said the ability to lure and incentivise the private sector to carry responsibility for some of the projects had not been favoured by clear and well suited enabling policies and regulation, as well as a lack of commitment by some governments.
He said the International Energy Agency report of 2023 indicated that approximately 600 million people lacked access to electricity at continental level, which accounted for 43 per cent of the continent’s population.
He indicated that the SADC region was similarly facing challenges with connectivity average of 55 per cent, while some members had reached a commendable 100 per cent.
“The lowest access rate is a paltry 13 per cent, and this is a serious disparity and mismatch that we must work hard to reverse if we are to integrate meaningfully and realise the aspirations of the SADC Vision,” he cautioned.
Mr Magosi said addressing such needed a special attention by both the political and energy sector leaderships.
Concerning regional projects priorities, Mr Magosi said in the Energy Sector Plan, a total of 23 energy infrastructure projects were identified, with a primary focus on power generation and transmission inter-connectors.
“The aim is to address energy supply security and ultimately facilitate regional energy integration,” he said and added that the discovery of gas by some member states could be a game-changer in the transition to cleaner energy.
Mr Magosi also noted that the region was still committed to migrating to cost reflective tariffs to protect the energy supply industry, while promoting investment in the development of energy infrastructure.
He said the SADC Secretariat in collaboration with RERA and other regional energy organisations continuously mobilised resources and technical support through direct engagement with international partners for both soft and hard infrastructure.
Mr Magosi further indicated that the region pinned its hopes on RERA’s networking and bilateral meetings to come up with resolutions that would lead to tangible results in the short to medium term, to add value to SADC aspirations in promoting sustainable economic growth and enhancing the livelihoods of SADC citizens through development of energy infrastructure in pursuit of regional integration.
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