CESI’s implementation of the electric regional market ECOWAS

In the last few months, CESI has obtained a crucial project concerning the development of the regional Grid Code WAPP (West African Power Pool), which will pave the way to the implementation of the electric regional market ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. The project will carry on over the course of one year and, given its complexity and strategic relevance, will involve a 10-person Team .

The Grid Code to be developed requires, beforehand, the detection of those rules that will allow for the management of the technical components of the electric regional market. Such rules and regulations involve:

• Connection of generation, HVDC, and demand facilities;
• Coordinated operation of each national power system;
• Metering rules;
• Cross-border electricity transfers and common market technical rules;
• Trainings of operators

In this context, CESI will analyze all data and available information, taking into consideration the current status of the grid and the local socio-political climate, on top of the international best practices. Once the data will be understood, new code profiles will be identified, justifying relevance and possible issues of each one. Furthermore, the Code (which will later be submitted to the evaluation of all the interested stakeholders of the member States) will be developed. Finally, the feedback gathered from this phase will help maximize the compliancy of the Grid Code with national rules and practices, with the ultimate goal to facilitate the harmonization on the national grid codes.