As I continue to reflect on the Africa Energy Grid, I cant help but say a little prayer for the legal and regulatory teams that will be involved in the undertaking. For it is on the backbone of a strong legal and regulatory framework that a successful trans-continental grid will be built.
The laws and regulations that legal teams will need to include in their draft energy agreements should embrace the foundations laid by the existing frameworks from the involved countries and territories. These will include local in-country and cross border regulations. Regulations should be accessible in multiple languages for implementation across the continent.
Early adopters of a continent-wide mindset are already holding conversations with organizations such as the African Forum for Utility Regulators (http://www.afurnet.org/en/) and the Regional Energy Regulators Association of Southern Africa (https://rerasadc.com/). These organizations are engaged in discussions that encompass topics like cybersecurity within energy trading, the regulation of mini-grids, and market readiness for trade across a single African electricity market.
Including learnings from countries like Tanzania and the DRC which already trade across more than one power pool is another way to find the lowest common denominator for regulatory inclusion.
Adopting such a proactive stance should include lessons learned from the European experiences during this region’s last 70 years of Energy trading. By doing this, we can avoid potential bottlenecks in cross-border energy trading while embracing renewable energy inputs to the electricity grid. Building on others’ lessons while innovating a unique path should guide Africa toward a robust and sustainable energy trading future.
If your national energy regulator has not yet started considering these aspects, it is time for them to broaden their understanding of what these energy trading agreements could look like. And if they tell you that they don’t know where to start, Chapter 3 and 7 of “Managing IT Suppliers: A Practical Guide to Vendor Management”(https://www.routledge.com/Managing-IT-Suppliers-A-Practical-Guide-to-Vendor-Management/Gema/p/book/9781041121565) provide an approach to adopting regulations and structuring contracts that can be replicated across multiple agreements.
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