Paper short abstract:

Power pools offer a regional way to interconnect grids and overcome electricity shortage and future energy needs. In Southern Africa, hydropower projects, such as the Grand Inga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, could be drivers for turning regional cooperation into regional integration.

Paper long abstract:

Power pools were formed to improve network efficiency and power exchange between two or more utilities. The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) has been established in 1995 with the aim to supply electricity to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States. The SAPP covers policy, coordinates planning and the interconnected regional power system, and involves governments, power utilities and financial agencies. Today, the SADC is faced with diminishing generation capacity, the SAPP therefore attempts to encourage investments in the region and launch infrastructures development.

Inga I and II existing hydropower stations are experiencing recurrent problems: Kinshasa is regularly plunged into darkness by power cuts. It didn't prevent the DRC government from rejecting the Inga site development proposed by Westcor, a consortium led by the SADC Member States national companies. Nevertheless, in 2011, Presidents Kabila and Zuma signed a Memorandum of Understanding, and in 2012 agreed on a draft treaty for (re)launching the Grand Inga project. DRC is not only part of the SAPP, but also involved in the Eastern and Central African Power Pool (EAPP and CAPP). In 2008, a tripartite agreement has been signed between EAPP, SAPP and COMESA, thus paving the way for partnerships between regional organizations and regional energy markets.

In this paper, the challenges between South Africa and DRC will be identified at the regional level with a focus on the energy actors involved in the Inga hydropower stations and on the cooperation/competition between South Africa and DRC for the project benefits.