Progress towards linking Africa’s regional energy infrastructure under the Continental Master Plan (CMP), the ‘blueprint’ of the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM), was presented by the technical team from the European Union’s Technical Assistance Facility (EU TAF) and African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD)  in a high-level hybrid meeting held in Johannesburg (South Africa), on 9 September 2021. The meeting focused on the validation of the CMP inception report, which consolidates the common action plan for CMP in terms of scope, methodology, governance structure and implementing mechanisms.

Physical interconnection of Africa’s continental energy infrastructure is planned within the context of the ongoing effort to set up the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) - one of the largest electricity markets in the world, covering the African Union's 55 Member States, and a population of more than 1.3 billion.

In its first months of execution, the CMP project already achieved important milestones: agreement on the suitable technical solutions in collaboration with the African Power Pools (review of the Energy Information Systems (EIS) and GIS, the power system simulation software), numerous participatory consultation meetings, and the selection of the partners for the technical trainings - International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - who had rolled out the first training earlier this year. The Validation meeting was notably attended by AUDA-NEPAD, AUC, AfDB, , RECs, Regional Regulators, Centres for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency y(CREEEs), African Power Pools, IRENA,  IAEA, EU TAF, and the European Commission (including Delegations)

Participating partners pledged their commitment towards the next steps of the CMP, which includes over 25 training sessions for a core team of African energy modellers from key institutions such as AUDA, African Power Pools (WAPP, EAPP, CAPP, SAPP, COMELEC), and the African Development Bank (AfDB), that will champion the future of Africa’s electricity infrastructure.

With the support of the European Union’s dedicated Technical Assistance Facility for Sustainable Energy (EU TAF), the African Union has been coordinating the Harmonisation of African Electricity Markets since 2015, culminating in the launch of the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) in  June 2021. Strategic objectives are to improve access to reliable and sustainable energy, to promote industrialisation, economic development, and job creation.