Energy Regulation in Africa

This chapter traces the history, and significant factors such as political systems, legal regimes and energy sectors that have shaped Africa’s energy regulatory regime. This will be discussed within the political settlement theory to understand the barriers, drivers and outcomes of regulation on the continent. The chapter will also review the Electricity Regulatory Index published by the African Development Bank to examine the performance of regulators on the continent.

The chapter addresses the critical challenge of transitioning to clean energy, notably in developing countries. It emphasizes the need for resources, technologies, and effective policies for this transition. A key focus is on technical advancements aiding Africa's shift to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. The chapter examines technological solutions such as energy storage, smart grids, and blockchain for the energy transition. It assesses the role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in advancing sustainable energy technology in Africa. PPPs contribute to research, development, and implementation of these technologies. The chapter reviews policy and regulatory frameworks for adopting renewable energy technologies. It discusses the potential and challenges of these frameworks in Africa.

In decades past, developing countries undertook significant power sector reforms with the intention to promote private investment, expand access, increase competition, and promote efficiency in service delivery. The reforms have involved institutional and policy changes, including the creation of independent regulatory bodies to demonstrate political and legal commitment to ending self-regulation and the state-dominated provision of electricity services. However, the extent to which these reforms have yielded the expected benefits remains heavily contested. Some studies have attributed the failure of the reforms to bad design, erratic regulations, and political interference.

To further an understanding of these issues, the paper conducted a comparative analysis of power sector reforms across Africa with the view of establishing lessons for future and ongoing reform actions. The chapter utilized the adapted regulation evaluation framework by Kapika & Eberhard (2013) based on Brown et al. (2006). The assessment of regulatory reforms in each country covered regulatory governance, regulatory substance, and regulatory impact. Additionally, the chapter, on the basis of available literature and evidence, attempted to establish the extent to which stakeholder influences have helped to impair or advance the course of regulatory reforms in the electricity sector in Africa. The analysis involved 10 countries, that are a mix of countries with high and low access rates in the sub-region, which is necessary to ensure diversity and a fair representation of regulatory experiences in the region. The study concludes that the establishment of regulatory authorities alone does not translate into regulatory impact on the country. For countries to materialize their regulatory impact, there is the need to ensure political commitment to allow the system to operate to its strength.

The past decade has seen rapid innovations in energy technologies and business models, especially the breakthrough of low-cost renewable and distributed energy resources. These innovations are prompting a new wave of reforms on how the power sector should be organized, operated, and regulated. This study asks how political economy factors will shape the redesign of power markets in Africa that is prompted by the growing share of variable renewables. The study draws on three bodies of literature- standard power sector reform, current innovations inducing a new wave of reforms, and political economy as applied to the power sector. We combine these bodies of literature to provide an analytical framework that offers deeper insights into the implications of the growing share of variable renewable energy technologies and distributed energy resources on power market design, system operation, and regulation in Africa. The comparative case study of Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Namibia draws on the analysis of qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews. In each of the three countries we interviewed senior professionals in regulatory authorities, government departments, power utilities, development finance institutions, and the private sector who are key to the reform process of the power sector in and who have contributed to policy, governance, regulatory and operational changes in the electricity supply industry. We find that of the three countries, only Namibia seems to have a political objective to maintain cost reflective tariffs while in both Zimbabwe and Kenya, political actors favour low tariffs as a means of retaining control and remaining in power especially towards election season. We conclude that the political economy of African countries is best suited to regulatory instruments which avoid privatization but include private participation in some form. This satisfies the dominant nationalist ideology but can achieve good performance. Furthermore, the study shows that effective integration of distributed energy resources requires sending the right economic signals with granularity in space and time. However, this requires a level of sophistication that may be beyond reach in the context of African power markets at present.

The cost of extending access to electricity is high, but the cost of continued lack of electricity access is higher.

This Chapter seeks to explore the legal and regulatory pathways that can be considered for a well-planned and effective transition of the energy industry in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in line with the global energy transition agenda and reconciling same with the energy access gap and energy poverty in the region. It is particularly relevant, given the vagaries and dynamics of the energy landscape in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, and the huge energy access deficit in the region, benchmarked against the drive to attain reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy for all within the tenets of the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), alongside the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC) under the Paris Agreement, particularly as it relates to developing countries.

With over 600 million people lacking access to electricity in the region, investment to scale up energy access remains paramount. This is particularly key when considered, alongside the projected rise in electricity demand linked to a rising population boom in countries across the region. Access to energy remains a global development agenda, hinged on the overall drive to alleviate and eradicate energy poverty across SSA. Nevertheless, the dynamics of the electricity sectors in countries across SSA affords the opportunity to consider several pathways that can be explored from a legal and regulatory angle to attract investment and scale up energy access, while also placing the region on a trajectory for its staged energy transition, in line with the respective national agendas and the global decarbonization agenda.

This chapter proffers pathways that can be explored in charting Africa’s energy transition journey. The insights from the chapter will be useful to policymakers, governments, and industry stakeholders in developing national and region-wide framework(s) for Africa’s energy transition.

This article aims to discuss the policies and regulations required to promote clean energies and the energy transition in ECOWAS countries. It discusses regional and national policies and analyses national regulators’ roles and practices in promoting clean energy sources and green mini-grids. Based on documentary analysis and processing of secondary data from various databases, the article shows that the political and regulatory framework has established an environment conducive to develop green mini-grids with increased production capacities and electricity from green sources. The analysis of regulatory practices in six-member countries, namely Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, has made it possible to highlight the activities of national regulators for the development of green mini-grid projects, including stand-alone mini-grid projects to increase clean-source electricity generation and access to energy. The study also highlights the strategies put in place by regulators when the national grid reaches the area of ​​operation of isolated mini-grids.

Like many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Republic of Zambia (Zambia) is experiencing an electricity crisis as it has not been able to produce enough electricity to meet its demand. In addition, only 46% of its population has access to electricity. Of this number, a mere 14.5% are located in rural and remote communities, which comprise most of the Zambian population. Some of the factors underlying the country’s interrupted power supply and low access rates include no investment in new generation infrastructure for almost 30 years, overreliance on hydropower, excessively low tariffs that stifle private sector investment, and a widely disbursed, less economically empowered population. Solutions incorporating both the extension of the main grid and the installation of mini-grids and stand-alone solar systems will be required to improve Zambia’s energy access and ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, and clean electricity in line with Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7). To help address Zambia’s energy access gap, decentralized energy systems, including solar mini-grids, will need to be deployed. Zambia needs to bolster investments to scale mini-grid development by creating a more enabling investment environment through transparent, predictable, simpler, and fair regulation. This chapter considers Zambia’s experience with mini-grid development and the role of regulation in scaling the sub-sector.

Regulation is about rules, procedures or guidelines aimed at ensuring the proper implementation of the sector policies and laws. In electricity sector, regulation is fundamentally divided into two core areas thus technical and economic regulations. The central issue of the economic regulation is the efficient exchange value through the recovery of the gamut of cost of providing electricity services, from generation point to final consumption point and associated services to ensure the reliability and sustainability of the sector. Cost-reflectivity of tariffs is one of the cardinal goals of electricity regulation. This is important to ensure the financial viability of firm and the continuous provision of services to consumers. However, challenges such as information asymmetry, limited regulator capacity and political interference make this goal difficult to achieve. This chapter traces the emergence of exchange value theory as the premises upon which electricity tariff emerges and provides a review on how these challenges can be overcome to develop an optimal electricity pricing regime. The central issue of this paper is to provide justification for regulation and also investigate and articulate the most efficient means of determining the price of electricity within a regulated environment.

The chapter takes a holistic approach to power sector regulation from a legal, engineering, and business perspective. It assesses and strengthens the readiness of African regulators for energy transition investments in Africa’s power sector. Using case studies and examples drawn from the authors’ professional experiences in Africa’s power sector, this chapter provides a practical insight for regulators in improving performance to unlock Africa’s energy transition investment potentials.

Energy regulators in Africa have a responsibility to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the energy sector, balancing the interests of consumers, industry stakeholders and the environment. Their responsibilities include setting tariffs, promoting renewable energy, ensuring energy security, enforcing regulations and monitoring market competition. They play a key role in Africa's energy transition by promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy and reducing negative environmental impacts. Energy regulators balance consumer interests by setting rates and quality standards, ensuring market competition and protecting consumer rights. They balance environmental concerns by promoting renewable energy sources, setting emissions and waste management standards and enforcing environmental regulations. Balancing the interests of industry players by promoting fair competition, ensuring legal compliance and facilitating dialogue between them and regulators. Limited resources, poor enforcement and lack of political will are the major challenges facing energy regulators in Africa's energy transition.

The world has recently been hit by some major crises that have forced leaders to review certain decisions taken for the good of their population and the world at large. These crises (some natural and others manmade) have affected the socio-political, economic, legal, and technological components of most, if not all of the countries in the world. The most recent of these crises are those of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The COVID-19 health crisis imposed the need for readjustment in our pattern of living, limiting the movement of goods and persons, and the closure of businesses and offices, with large numbers of deaths registered around the world. The entire world was brought to a halt as people watched helplessly, how the lives of their loved ones and family members were switched off. To this was added the Russian–Ukraine crisis, which brought with it high rates of inflation, increase in oil and gas prices thereby causing an increase in the cost of living. Prior to 2020, African Countries were among the fastest growing in the world. Unfortunately, these crises have reversed decades of hard-won macroeconomics, socioeconomics, and governance gains on the continent. Speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace on 14 June, 2022, Ahunna Aziakonwa (U.N. Assistant Secretary General) said, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put households, communities, and countries across Africa in a very precarious situation. Within this context of health and economic crises hitting the world, how have African countries been able to manage the regulation of public utilities? In most of these African countries, internal political, economic, and social unrests add up to these global crises to even worsen the impact on the population, especially as the purchasing power of most families in African countries is still very low. This article shall therefore bring to light the challenges faced by African public utility regulators (especially those within the energy sector) in managing the utilities they regulate. It shall focus on the solutions adopted by these regulators, to ensure a continuous supply of these utilities to the population at a reasonable tariff, without compromising the business interests of the operators within the regulated sectors.

Electricity has become an important factor to boost the development of most countries across the world and an indicator of living standards for households. While the cost of access to electricity has been increasing over time, especially in African countries, firms engaged in the sector are still failing too to be efficient. Despite improvements in tariff decisions across the continent, utilities are still struggling to collect enough to stable relevant and viable. Therefore, this paper compares the utility performance and electricity tariff for Ghana, Namibia, and Uganda, using different reports published by those countries, it is observed that a need for regular data collection is required for further evidence analysis.

Two trends have driven the evolution of electricity markets worldwide in recent decades: the liberalization of historically monopolistic markets and the integration of national markets through the creation of interconnections and power pools. This double movement has been observed in sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in West Africa since the 1990s. Indeed, African countries pursued power sector reforms from a “standard model” advanced by development finance institutions (DFI) such as World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under structural adjustment packages: DFI required governments to reform strategic sectors of the economy through the separation of powers and functions and the introduction of market-based incentives. There has been a series of reforms carried out by the States to liberalize the sector. Few African countries have a wholesale or retail electricity market, and only a handful of countries have created independent grids, unbundled from state-owned generation. This paper analyzes the process of liberalization and evolution of competitive reforms electricity sector and the construction of competitive electricity markets both at national and regional levels in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. The methodological approach is based on theoretical analysis of policy documents and regulations defined in the fourteen ECOWAS member states and data analysis of secondary data collected from several databases. The approach used is based on both theoretical analysis and analysis of policy documents, implemented regulations, and secondary data to analyze completions and make the most comprehensive assessment possible of the state and evolution of electricity markets in the region.

In Africa, regional electricity markets are being developed through the establishment of five power pools to promote power trading between countries in different regions. Experience from regional electricity markets around the world has shown that ineffective regional governance and flawed rules for regional trading and network cost allocation are the main obstacles to realising the benefits of well-designed regional markets. In addition to focusing on regional institutions and governance, this chapter provides new information on the historical development of power trading and its current organisation across the African continent. It also presents a comparative case study of the five African power pools. The chapter makes use of a general model of regional power trade organisation to facilitate the analysis of the institutional and regulatory models of SAPP, WAPP, CAPP, EAPP, and COMELEC. It also examines the political economy of regional cooperation to show how national interests and trade agendas have shaped the development. Finally, the chapter concludes by highlighting the institutional gaps in each region and emphasising the role of regulation in advancing power trade on the continent.

This chapter provides an outlook on the perspectives and opportunities associated with electricity as a commodity in interconnected markets. Energy security is the backbone of the quest for interconnectivity for electricity supply. As the world, especially within developing nations, increasingly seeks to develop sustainable and secure energy systems; the integration of electricity markets across national borders has emerged as a viable option. This integration fosters improved energy security, market efficiency, and renewable energy integration. Additionally, cross-border electricity markets promote regional cooperation, improved grid stability, and development for economic growth. This is in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to improve energy access, economic development, and poverty eradication.

The concept of cross-border electricity markets improves efficiency by allowing countries to share resources and energy assets. Africa is susceptive to poor public electricity supply, despite the desire to industrialise. This chapter delves into the possibilities for a future-proof electricity market through regulated affairs that involve participating countries across the African continent adopting electricity trade as a relative measure to curb energy poverty. The chapter discusses the background of cross-border electricity trading and presents a case study on existing markets in addition to providing an outlook for securing a future-proof electricity market for the continent. By exploring these perspectives, this chapter presents valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders to foster sustainable and efficient cross-border electricity trade.

Over the years, significant milestones have been made in Africa towards power sector transformation and growth including the development of new power plants amidst a fast-growing population and corresponding electricity consumption every year. Notwithstanding, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is still bedevilled with low levels of energy access and poor quality of electricity supply despite the continent's natural resource endowment with renewable and non-renewable energy resources. Africa's small, sparsely populated, fragmented, and frequently isolated economies present a strong argument for regional economic integration in order to enhance efficiency, take advantage of economies of scale, and thin out boundaries (Jaime and Tsikata, 2015). Regional electricity integration and cooperation through grid interconnection and power pooling is a potentially cost-effective way of connecting excess capacity in one country or region with (peak) demand in another, despite the requirement for better energy-producing capacity and transmission infrastructure inside African nations. The objective of this study is to assess the different levels of regional integration in Africa while outlining the associated challenges. In pursuit of these objectives, the paper would use a capacity expansion planning model covering both generation and transmission investments to simulate how the electric power systems in Sub-Saharan Africa may develop under different underlying scenarios of challenges. The paper will present the processes, general guideline lessons, and experiences pertaining to “good practices” for developing and operationalizing effective regional power pools.

This paper analyses the process of liberalisation and evolution of competitive reforms in the electricity sector and the development of competitive electricity markets at national and regional levels in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. The methodological approach is based on theoretical analysis of policy documents and regulations defined in the fifteen ECOWAS Member States and data analysis of secondary data collected from several databases. The approach used is based on both theoretical analysis and analysis of policy documents, implemented regulations, and secondary data to analyse completions and make the most comprehensive assessment possible of the state and evolution of electricity markets in the region. The article is organised into three parts. The first part of the paper describes the theoretical framework of liberalisation and electricity market competitiveness. The second part describes the evolution of the national and regional electricity market in the ECOWAS region and it shows that the public policies and reforms in the national electricity market followed three periods from the structural adjustment programmes and liberalisation in 1990 under the supervision of development finance institutions (World Bank, IMF) to the beginning of liberalisation policies in early 2000 to the end since 2010 the renewal of reforms towards total liberalisation of the sector. The third part of the paper discusses and presents the configuration and institutional arrangement at the regional level and proposes an integrated configuration of the regional market which couples national markets into a competitive regional electricity market. The chapter finished with regulation and policy recommendations.

This chapter discusses the role of the African media in reporting on energy-related climate change issues on the continent. Energy is at the core of sustainable development. So is climate change. This is because climate change increases the cost of development by exacerbating the effects of poverty and population growth. This exposes millions of people, especially in developing countries, to food and water shortages and diseases, which can limit the opportunities for sustainable development if not addressed.¹²³

Climate change can also affect the generation of energy and the development of energy infrastructure in many ways. For instance, the generation of electricity using coal is regarded by many industry experts as detrimental to the environment due to its associated emissions. Conversely, climate change issues have contributed to the aggressive pursuit of energy transition which has influenced the development of green technologies in energy generation.

Relatedly, inputs or resources required for energy generation (such as fossil fuels, water, etc.) are impacted by climate change, in terms of their availability and adequacy. Extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves and droughts limit access and availability to existing energy generation sources.⁴ On the other hand, the output of energy generation also contributes immensely to climate change in the form of emissions, greenhouse gases, and other forms of waste (non-gaseous) emanating from extractive activities.

These present a major threat to Africa, especially as the African Development Bank has declared Africa as the most vulnerable continent to climate change and its impacts.⁵ This is an indication that energy-related climate change issues require urgent attention in Africa.

As climate change takes hold, Africans are increasingly demanding information about what is happening, and how its impact could be minimized or mitigated. This means that knowledge and access to information on energy-related climate change are essential for effective climate management and impact minimization. Availability and access to such information will also influence the African government's decision-making on the required investments to accelerate the energy transition. That is, decisions taken by nation states on green investments in the energy sector will rely heavily on the availability of energy-related climate change information.

The African media, as a source of information can play a significant role in disseminating knowledge about energy-related climate change. Their role in this regard is indispensable because, in many instances, public sentiments are shaped by the media. Thus, the way the energy-related climate change is reported will have a profound effect on how people comprehend it, especially with respect to reports on the causes, sources, impact, recent dynamics in climate change, and how best its causal factors could be tamed.

Additionally, the interest of Africa’s reading class may not necessarily be tilted towards scientific papers and reports on climate change to gain first-hand information on energy-related climate trends and related issues. Moreover, as the continent struggles with literacy levels, there are significant portions of the population whose understanding of climate-related information may be limited. For instance, the average national climate change literacy rate in Africa is 37%, which is far lower than that of Europe and North America, where rates are over 80%.⁶ Recent studies have posited that the problem of understanding climate change is one of the major challenges confronting Africa, its governments, and the African Union.⁷

Thus, most Africans would look up to the media to demystify, in a straightforward and simplified way, the facts and realities of climate change. The media therefore becomes an important player in climate change communication in this regard.

Despite this significant role of the African media, the reportage of energy-related climate change information of the continent has mostly been narrated through the lens of the Western media, which may not necessarily reflect Africa’s realities on climate issues. Often, Western media coverage of climate change in Africa may lack in-depth reporting and be nuanced. This may partly be due to a need to project the agenda of the Western media and foreign policies, or due to limited exposure to the African “climate change experience”.⁸

Given that African media reportage tends to rely heavily on information available from secondary sources (Western media houses), some pertinent climate-related storytelling specifically tailored towards the African reality may be missing from the continent’s media coverage of climate change. This leads to a lack of local ownership and limited local context of energy-related climate change information on African countries.⁹ Such gaps in reporting mostly stem from the fact that the African media is not investing enough in energy and climate change research to create a credible first-hand body of evidence on the issues.¹⁰ Rather, it appears Africa keeps telling its story on climate change from the perspective of the West.

Poor access to energy in sub-Saharan African countries, combined with high, rising and highly volatile international energy prices, has prompted most countries to introduce energy subsidies in order to protect the poor and make energy accessible. However, these subsidies are geared toward fossil fuels, to the detriment of renewable energies, which could be a factor holding back the energy transition process in this region. The aim of this chapter is therefore to analyze the effect of fossil fuel subsidies on renewable energy transition for 35 sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2010 to 2020. The results of the non-additive fixed-effects quantile regression show that fossil fuel subsidies slow down renewable energy transition. However, the magnitude of the negative effect of fossil fuel subsidies is greater in countries with a low level of transition than in countries with a high level of transition. The results of the estimation using the GMM method also show the existence of asymmetrical effects of fossil fuel subsidies on the energy transition. Indeed, an increase in subsidies reduces the energy transition, while a decrease in subsidies accelerates the energy transition in the short and long term. In terms of economic policy implications, these results suggest the need to reform energy subsidies in order to give greater importance to renewable energies and accelerate the energy transition. A gradual reallocation of subsidies towards renewable energies is therefore conceivable if the energy transition is to succeed and sustainable development is to be promoted in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

One in three Africans do not have access to electricity. In most places where lights are available, the power supply is either unstable or not affordable. The penultimate energy policy of an African government is therefore to address the challenges of access, reliability, and affordability by transitioning to cheaper, low-carbon-emitting, and renewable energy sources. These, in turn, are expected to help reduce poverty and inequality. The African continent, however, does not live in isolation. Africa has contributed to climate change, though marginally, and is being affected by same. This has led to the development of policies and programs to reduce energy-related carbon emissions, among other strategies. While this will contribute to reducing emissions, enhancing the diversity of energy sources, promoting energy security, and creating employment in the clean technology sector, there could be challenges with stranded assets, loss of petroleum revenues, and petroleum jobs. How can countries in Sub-Saharan Africa take advantage of the opportunities offered by the energy transition while minimizing the negative impact on their economies? This paper attempts to offer some recommendations. An analysis of energy policy and related documents relevant to Africa’s energy transition, as well as statistical energy databases were reviewed and applied in this study. Drawing from existing literature, the paper interrogates the gains and pains of the energy transition, and how countries in Sub-Saharan Africa can take advantage of the opportunities offered by the energy transition while minimizing the negative impact on their economies. The study reveals that while funding for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and clean cooking in Africa has been sourced from public, private, and development partners in the past, the dynamics are changing. Africa needs to be part of the value chain, and not a mere consumer of technologies. With reserves in resources required for the energy transition, steps should be taken to start building industries around these resources. A combination of gas-fired thermal plants, hydro, solar, concentrated solar power, and wind can serve Africa’s energy needs. African countries should target renewable energy deployment, for instance, grid solar solution for rural and residential urban areas, natural gas for industry and industrial heating, and hydro as a baseload, in addition to natural gas which has many applications beyond power generation. The review offered an assessment on why Africa needs a unique energy transition path, and how energy sector governance and investment financing of renewables on the continent can foster an effective energy transition.

Over the years, Ghana has developed and implemented policies that are intended to achieve green outcomes. In order to strengthen its green credentials, the country ratified the Paris Agreement in August 2016. Among the twenty action items developed to be implemented to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement, nine are directly related to the energy sector. This has led to a number of interventions, including the Drive Electric Initiative, which seeks to encourage ownership and use of electric vehicles. In order to examine the readiness of consumers to change to, or pay for EVs, the paper adopts the limited dependent variable regression—with both probit and logit estimators—to determine the factors that influence the demand for electric vehicles. Our measure of the respondents’ willingness to change to or pay for EVs is captured in two forms to ensure robustness of our results. First, we measure willingness to change to EVs (WTC) by asking the respondents about their willingness to change to EVs based on the limited information that the respondents may have on EVs. Secondly, after realizing their limitations of knowledge regarding EVs and giving them further advantages of EV ownership, we measure the respondent’s willingness to change to EVs after exposure. Therefore, we consider the provision of knowledge on EVs to the respondents as some form of a treatment. After these, we examine the respondent’s willingness to pay for EVs (WTP) using the same determinants we considered in their WTC after treatment. The findings indicate that regardless of the level of information provided on EV, travel distance, income, expenditure on fuel and the extent of Green House Gas emissions were key factors that influenced respondents’ willingness to change to or pay for EVs and the result was significant when more information was given.

South Africa is among the most carbon intensive energy producers in the world, with around 90% of its electricity being produced from coal. Since the 2005, it has been experiencing rolling electricity “black-outs” as a result of lack of capacity, maintenance issues and a lack of safe reserve capacity. The Department of Energy in 2011 launched the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (REI4P), with the aim of adding significant renewable energy capacity onto the grid. Between 2011 and 2015, around 5 GW was added onto the grid, and tariffs fell substantially. However, the REI4P was stalled between 2016 and 2021 when no new clean energy auctions were held. The programme was finally brought back onstream in 2021. South Africa is now producing renewable energy at some of the lowest tariffs in the world.

South Africa has among the best solar and wind resources in the world. In the context of significant electricity challenges, significant pressure to decarbonize in light of international commitments, as well as increasing trade pressures related to the European Green Deal (CBAM, fit for 55, Farm-to-Fork Strategy), the need to transition has become even more urgent. The evidence suggests a potential to unlock low-cost renewable energy exists, given an appropriate policy framework in South Africa that sets up a foundation for attracting finance. However, the lack of commitment to the REI4P creates significant investor uncertainty. In this chapter, I propose to look at the political economy around policy choices made regarding the renewable energy programme, including the stalling of the renewable energy programme in 2015. In doing so, I will unpack the interests that have influenced the policy choices, and analyse the competing power structures that have influenced the agenda, shaped policy, and ultimately influenced outcomes.

Energy transition comes off as a double-edged sword with consequences for several developing countries. Among these is the choice between patronage of local content in respect of production technologies required for the transition and the importation of the same technologies. This paper discusses the choice between imported equipment and locally manufactured ones in the clean cooking sub-sector and how this affects economic dynamics such as employment and productivity. The paper engaged 196 retailers and 35 manufacturers of ICS in a survey across Ghana. The findings revealed that ICS technologies are far advanced in developed countries whereas the technology transfer mostly reaches Ghana via the distribution chain hence making the technology transfer slow. Eventually, there is no real transfer of technical knowledge and skills to the local operators. Government and development partners as major stakeholders are encouraged to take pragmatic steps to plan or sponsor the training of local manufacturers in industrial centers with new technology. This has the potential to accelerate technology transfer and grow the local industry faster than the current situation. Additionally, Technical and Vocational institutions should be encouraged and supported to set up ICS technology incubation centers.

This study seeks to examine domestic natural gas production impact on Ghana's energy security. The study employed the quantitative research approach using an explanatory research design. The study modified the Cobb–Douglas production function to establish the theoretical foundation to model the relationship between domestic natural gas and energy security. The researchers used secondary quarterly data derived from the Ghana Energy Statistics from 2000 to 2021. This study further employed the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique to cointegrate the Granger causality test on important variables to achieve the study's objectives. The study's findings revealed a long-run relationship between domestic natural gas production and energy security variables based on the bound test. The study also revealed that the independent variables affect the dependent variable in the short and long run. This implies that domestic natural gas production improves energy security both in the short term and in the long run. The study recommends that policymakers should maintain current domestic natural gas production levels and invest in providing alternative natural gas supplies to Ghana.

Tackling gender inequality within Ghana’s oil industries and the wider Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) requires a fundamental shift within the industry and the state’s policy direction and scope. It requires reshaping the values, culture, and norms that produce and maintain gender bias within the industry (Greenspan (2017). Position Paper on Gender Justice and the Extractive Industries. Oxfam America.). It further necessitates “deliberately putting” gender on the corporate agenda of extractive firms to complement the affirmative action efforts from the state. This also requires collaborative and concerted efforts from the public and private authorities of relevant institutions to embark on policy drives to effect these changes. Besides meeting SDG 5, studies confirm a positive correlation between increasing gender equality, progressive women’s rights, and poverty alleviation (Chant, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship 6:296–316, 2014; Shikha, International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies 11:84–98, 2019). Gendering the corporate agenda to ensure gender equality must become one of the central indicators of the industry’s success as a driver of sustainable development. The central proposition of this chapter is that Ghana's oil and gas industry can play an unmatched role in ensuring gender equality in the political and economic domain of the country and the country’s quest to meet the SDGs on poverty reduction and gender equality. This being the case, the chapter proceeds, after the introduction, with an overview of the Dynamics of Oil Extraction. The next sections delved into Mainstreaming Gender: Affirmative Actions and Institutional Provisions, Gendering the Corporation, Ghana’s Institutional Efforts in Gender Mainstreaming, and some concluding remarks and policy recommendations.

The paper discusses the factors that influence cooperation between energy regulators and stakeholders in Africa, with a focus on culture, gender, and knowledge. The article emphasizes the need for a more consultative and collaborative approach to regulatory decision-making, taking into account the cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance. The article also highlights the importance of promoting gender equality in the energy sector, as well as the need for capacity-building initiatives to enhance knowledge and technical skills among regulators and stakeholders. Lastly, the paper highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement to foster cooperation between energy regulators and stakeholders and develop better policies that reflect the needs and concerns of all stakeholders.

Evidence abound to show that African women, especially those who are poor and tend mostly to live in rural areas, are more disadvantaged with respect to energy access as compared to their male counterparts. Overall, women tend to exercise less influence than men at the household level regarding energy purchase and usage for domestic use, and typically, their preferences are also not considered when these decisions are made. Addressing this imbalance would enable the energy sector to benefit from having a better balance in terms of contributions to decision-making as numerous studies have shown that institutions that have better good gender balance tend to do much better than those dominated by one gender given the advantage that comes from effective decision-making through broader consultation forums.

The energy sector is at a significant juncture. This is because the sector keeps evolving due to the influence of accelerating change of technology in response to increasing energy demand and the imperative need of decarbonizing production. As a result, the associated regulatory regimes that govern the sector also need to evolve to keep up with the drift. This is essential if regulators are to guarantee sustained protection of consumer and utility interests, while ensuring a stable regulatory regime that promotes confidence in the sector. A 2018 report of the World Economic Forum stipulates that the energy sector is looking forward to a dynamic future. Particularly, technologies implemented in response to demand and decarbonization will open up new frontiers for the future energy system by altering the relationship between consumers and utilities. This means that there is an urgent need to regulators to innovate and prepare for these changes. Indeed, regulators have the power to shape or adapt to industry trends. For Africa, a key enabler in the adaptation of this evolution depends on strong and effective regulatory structures. How so? Energy is one of Africa’s largest infrastructure challenges, although the continent is endowed with unexploited abundant energy sources. According to the African Development Bank, energy is the primary engine of Africa’s industrialization and growth. Therefore, access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable modern energy services is essential for Africa to fulfill its objective of industrializing the continent. Regulation of the energy sector, however, has a significant role to play in this industrialization quest. A robust and dynamic regulatory regime provides a strong foundation and support mechanism for propelling the performance of the energy sector, especially by ensuring prudent costs, investments in the sector, and provision of acceptable and reliable service quality. This indicates that a dynamic energy sector that will principally be a significant contributor to Africa’s industrialization will simultaneously require progressive and strong regulatory regimes. Given the prospect of this dynamic future of the energy sector, what needs to change in the regulation of the sector in Africa going forward? What will regulation of the energy sector in Africa entail in the future? How would regulators address the issue of the energy trilemma—the struggle of ensuring a secure and reliable energy supply, at an affordable cost, and with minimal environmental impact? How much faster will the energy ecosystem transform if underpinned by supportive regulation? How can African countries and respective country regulators leverage on regional power pools to harmonize regulation to facilitate regional power trade essential in Africa’s industrialization drive? This chapter seeks to address these questions and details the future of energy regulation within the context of some key thematic sections. We begin by summarizing the structure of  the current energy regulation on the continent to provide some contextual basis of addressing gaps and weaknesses in regulatory systems including legal, regulatory, and administrative frameworks. Next, the chapter outlines the possible factors that may drive a change in the current model of regulation, with a focus on the advancement of the energy transition and related climatic concerns among others. The chapter will also argue the key strategies required in building a sustainable energy system by creating regulatory synergy between energy and the environment. Additionally, the chapter explores how Africa’s future regulatory system, through institutional mechanisms and frameworks, can play a key role in contributing to effective regional power pools. We then set out the key elements that contribute to a progressive regulatory system, vis-à-vis a dynamic energy sector. Finally, the chapter discusses how future regulatory regimes can drive innovation to support the energy transition to allow for prudent, timely, and efficient investment which will deliver sustainable, resilient, and affordable services to consumers.