Africa pushes for grid integration as power trade grows

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South Africa’s Eskom CEO Dan Marokane has called for a regional transmission plan to support the country’s strategy and enable wider power trading across the Southern African Power Pool. This is a major opportunity as many countries rely on imports to ease shortages and would face far greater grid pressure without stronger regional links.

• Electricity is South Africa’s 20th largest export, and brought in about $820 million in 2024. The main buyers were Mozambique at about $291 million, Namibia and Botswana at about $109 million each.

• Countries that lack sufficient generation capacity or enough firm capacity often turn to neighbours for support. Recently, Tanzania signed a deal to import electricity from Ethiopia through Kenya.

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