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Benefits, Challenges, and Analytical Approaches to Scaling Up Renewables Through Regional Planning and Coordination of Power Systems in Africa

  • Regional Renewable Energy – Africa (D Arent and N Lee, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

In light of the urgent need and ambition of African communities to scale up the deployment of renewable energy, this article explores the benefits and challenges presented by regional coordination in Africa, and how recent planning studies are reflecting those aspects in their analysis of future power sector expansion on the continent.

Recent Findings

Regional approaches to renewable deployment in Africa can reduce overall system costs and improve operation by expanding access to higher quality renewable resources, while unlocking a greater diversity of renewable options. Regional approaches can also provide greater flexibility and stability to national power systems, as well as complementarity that allows countries to scale up development of single sources while still reducing risks related to climate variability and future change.

Summary

Based on a long history of experience, the benefits of regional approaches to power sector development and operation are now well established. New methodologies using more granular geospatial and temporal data have emerged to make the analysis of these benefits more feasible and more detailed. Novel additions to planning studies are also presenting more nuanced insights into the implications that climate change, technological innovations, and socio-political influences could have on regional renewable energy deployment.

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Notes

  1. These general factors are not unique to African regions, and among other issues, they have been shown to prevent greater market integration in other more advanced power systems as well (see [18, 19]).

  2. This reflects the more general findings by Krapohl and Fink regarding difficulties of creating effective regional integration among developing countries, particularly when there is an asymmetry in national economic conditions [21].

  3. While the studies discussed here largely deal with generation expansion planning, a number of recent transmission and distribution planning studies have also explored high shares of renewables in African regions (see [30,29,32] for relevant examples).

  4. It should be noted that Trotter identifies a number of methodological issues in this work, including inter alia flaws in the characterisation of capacity factors, transmission losses, and import constraints, which could affect the magnitude—though likely not the direction—of this finding [38].

  5. For more information see: http://mapre.lbl.gov/

  6. Often, detailed analyses are conducted exogenously in separate works (e.g. for renewable cost [42], or climate dynamics [24]). In terms of modelling methodology, this also raises one of the most well-known difficulties in analysis for renewable planning, especially at regional and long-term scale, which is finding the appropriate geographic and temporal resolution of analysis to capture the unique characteristics of renewable resources. For example, while power sector analyses from Ouedraogo, which divides the African continent into four nodes rather than country-level resolution, can deliver interesting results, it is uncertain whether regional-level decision makers can find value in such studies given the more granular nature of actual RE investment and generation dynamics [43]. It is for this reason that larger-scale modelling analyses, often using Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to assess economy-wide dynamics globally, are not the focus of this review. This is not to say that models with such resolution cannot provide valuable insights, however, and it is not always easy to distinguish what type of analysis is relevant for regional-scale planning and decision makers (for good recent examples of IAM analysis that discuss regional African power sector dynamics, albeit at lower level of detail, see [44, 45]).

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  1. IRENA, Robert-Schuman-Platz 3, 53175, Bonn, Germany

    Daniel Russo & Asami Miketa

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Russo, D., Miketa, A. Benefits, Challenges, and Analytical Approaches to Scaling Up Renewables Through Regional Planning and Coordination of Power Systems in Africa. Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep 6, 5–12 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40518-019-00125-4

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