Compiled by talent Fundira , National university of Science and Technology ;ZIMBABWE

QUESTIONS: 1) WHY SHOULD SADC CONTINUE ADOPT AN INTERGRATED

ENERGY POLICY.GIVE ADVANTAGES AND CONCERNS.

Africa is well endowed with renewable and non-renewable energy resources that far exceed its energy demand requirements for the next century. But paradoxically, most African countries are characterized by energy poverty and poor energy access, a reflection of their low income and general state of economic underdevelopment. Poor regional and intraregional energy infrastructure linkages have exacerbated the cost of domestic supplies especially in landlocked countries; the sharp increase in world energy market prices since 1999 has made Africas drive to achieve affordable and expanded access to energy and sustainable development, as embodied in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) more challenging.

For example, higher prices have pushed access to refined petroleum products beyond the reach of hundreds of millions of low-income households, especially in rural areas. This and other developments associated with structural adjustment and related economic reform measures have reversed the meagre improvement in living standards and economic wellbeing in the post-adjustment period. With low income and higher fuel prices, the result has been increased recourse to biomass fuels with their obvious environmental consequences. The effects of higher world energy prices on domestic energy supply, access, economic growth and sustainable development, have been more severe in Africa than elsewhere. Poor

access to modern energy services constitutes a major constraint on the exploitation of economic opportunities, sustained economic growth and the achievement of higher living standards in the continent.

Therefore several questions demand inquiry in the search for a solution to the problem of achieving expanded access to affordable energy and the elimination of energy poverty. These questions include; the understanding of characteristics of energy poverty, causal factors in Africas energy poverty, the conditions and requirements for achieving the much-desired objectives of expanded energy supply and access, as well as the elimination of energy poverty, how can supply capacity be increased in the context of sustainable energy and human development future. the economic, political, social, legal, technical, human resource and environmental challenges to a reliable, adequate and affordable energy supply to meet the continents energy needs for economic growth and sustainable development, energy security issues in the region and how should they be addressed, the cost implications of the required wide energy access and the elimination of energy poverty and insecurity. The policy and institutional requirements for overcoming the regions protracted energy and income poverty and the establishment of an efficient, reliable and sustainable energy supply.

Therefore the energy-poor African countries should pursue a regionally-based, rather than an individual country-based approach. Individually, the countries are unable to attract adequate investment for the development of their energy sectors. In Africas southern region the southern Africa development community (SADC), established the South Africa Power Pool (SAPP) in 1995 through an Inter-Governmental Memorandum of Understanding (IGMOU), as a regional SADC body with the objective of optimizing the use of available energy resources in the region and supporting one another during emergencies that is to integrate

energy policies into broader development strategies in African countries, while at the same time encouraging regional integration. There after the SADC utilities signed an Inter Utility Memorandum of Understanding (IUMOU) in order to facilitate and develop power pooling and trade in the region. The SAPP comprises of 12 SADC Member States Utilities in exclusion of the utilities of the two SADC island states of Madagascar and Mauritius. It is funded by subscriptions paid by the member utilities. The SAPP Co-ordination Centre is based in Harare, Zimbabwe and SAPP operations are run through subcommittees. The SAPP facilitates optimal utilization of regional hydro and thermal energy resources and reduces capital and operating costs through coordination.

To date nine countries are participating with the exception of Angola, Malawi and Tanzania.. The SAPP facilitates optimal utilization of regional hydro and thermal energy resources and reduces capital and operating costs through coordination.

An intergrated energy policy is one which is linked with sustainable development that covers all sources of energy and addresses all aspects of energy use and supply including energy security, access and availability, affordability and pricing, as well as efficiency and environmental concerns. It facilitates problem solving and makes it possible to explore linkages, evaluate trade-offs and compare consequences, thereby helping countries to develop an effective energy strategy that supports national sustainable development goals.

The broad vision behind the intergrated energy policy is to reliably meet the demand for energy services of all sectors at competitive prices. Further, lifeline energy needs of all households must be met even if that entails directed subsidies to vulnerable households. The

demand must be met through safe, clean and convenient forms of energy at the least cost in a technically efficient, economically viable and environmentally sustainable manner.

Such policy is made viable by using planning tools, such as the intergrated resource planning (IRP). The IRP approach differs from strategic supply planning because it includes not only the costs incurred by the individual/organisation, but also societal costs, such as environmental impact mitigation necessitated by some resource choices. Secondly, IRP is technologically neutral, treating demand-side optionsend-use efficiency improvements and demand-side management(DSM)with the same weight as supply side resources, so that deferred or avoided end-use demand is equivalent to delivered supply of electricity. IRP is thus intended to make an integrated assessment of supply and demand-side options of increasing energy services, attempting to minimise all costs, and creating a flexible plan that allows for uncertainty and adjustment in response to changing circumstances.

IRP can be described as an approach through which the estimated requirements for electricity services during the planning period is met with a least-cost combination of supply and enduse efficiency measures, while incorporating concerns such as equity, environmental protection, reliability and other country-specific goals.

Intergrated energy policy promotes the evolution of common regional standards, rules procedures relevant to the generation, transmission, distribution facilities, particularly in the areas in which the region holds a comparative advantage, it develop and utilise electricity in an environmental sound manner, and subject electricity projects to environmental impact assessment conformity with agreed basic environmental standards. It also emphasise the

provision of universal and affordable service to all citizens and the importance of quality service in making electricity policies

Intergrated energy policy enables the SADC members to pool resources adequate-abundant and varied forms of indigenous energy resources increase energy security-the continuous availability of energy in varied forms, in sufficient quantities, and at reasonable prices- of other nations in the regional board. Energy insecurity and shortages affect countries in two ways: they handicap productive activities, and they undermine consumer welfare. Energy insecurity discourages investors by threatening production and increasing costs. For small investors, the cost of operation is increased, since electricity from private small-scale generation is more expensive than public national supplies. Electricity interruptions at home cause consumers great inconvenience, frustration, and loss of productivity, sometimes threatening their well-being. Interruptions in supply may trigger loss of production, costs related to product spoilage, and damage to equipment, therefore improving energy security can lead to regional as well as sub-regional developments which lead to alleviation of poverty by improving the social well-being of individuals.

The intergrated energy policy ensures that the Southern African region is the region of choice for investments by energy intensive users. This will create jobs for local people and hence poverty alleviation in the region. The policy also harmonise relationships between member utilities. Integration of SADC community can also makes other energy projects easier to establish as there would be a more understanding and reliability between countries. For example the Western corridor project (WESTCOR) which is a SADC project conceived through the combined initiative of the SADC Secretariat and the power utilities of Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia and the Republic of South

Africa. The projects aim is to harness the large water resources of the Congo River at Inga, to produce and supply electric power, initially for the five countries involved but ultimately to the whole SADC sub-region.

This policy also increases access to the sea ports by the landlocked countries by the launch of the SADC Free Trade Area in 2008. This means landlocked countries- like Zimbabwe tariffs are reduced and international trade is enhanced and local economic development may increase, however this has negative impact on the balance of payment, because more imports will undermine the local industries. This also may have negative impacts on those countries which have sea ports like Republic of South Africa, Mozambique and others as it also undermine their local taxing industry which means that they lose revenue and hence exploitation of the ports will result in retarded economic growth of those countries.

Energy resources are not equally distributed and available over the continent. Coal, oil, large rivers, biomass and fuel wood, solar, geothermal and wind potentials are unevenly distributed over Africa, resulting in cruel imbalances between countries and regions. For example, Zimbabwe-coal, South Africa-nuclear, Zambia-coal etc.

The intergrated energy policy force other members of SADC region to help other members of the board with less if not nothing to contribute into the energy pool, for example Malawi which is resources handicapped. This means that the policy may lead to the equal sharing of resources which are not evenly distributed and improve energy sector reform in such countries but at the same time disadvantaging other nations which have a lot of resource, for example Angola which have a lot of oil, south Africa with nuclear power, which they could have used to improve their economy infrastructure, and health development.

The intergrated energy policy can also lead to over exploitation of resources of members of the SADC board by other members who have sufficient technology to exploit the resource for example South Africa which have a strong economy. Those nations need their payment in kind, that is they would need those resources as a form of payment for helping the technologically handicapped nations. Also these nations which have sufficient technology to exploit the resources can pull out anytime leaving the victim exposed, and cut the economic development progress, as they will resort to the old inefficient methods ,which are not environmentally as well as socially health. Countries which are involved in some treaties and conventions which inhibit some use of certain type of resources for example coal can also conflict with such policies.

Many Southern African countries have not been able to create the conducive environment to attract investment in the development of the energy sector. In addition, the small size of African energy systems and markets does not allow for profitable business ventures in the sector.so Against this background, intergrated energy policy encourages the establishment and operation of sub regional power pools, joint development of hydro-power projects, crossborder transmission lines and gas pipelines. Africa is the least interconnected region in the world, whereas electric interconnections have long been well established in most of the industrialized countries showing that its a method to increase energy security. This allows for better balancing of supply and demand between countries with different resources or having resources of a different nature, it allows exploitation of resources that are abundant at a given place for producing electricity in order to transfer it, under commercial terms, to less favoured areas, thus enabling some poor countries to become significant players in the energy

production/trade sector. The ultimate objective is to support the creation of regional and continental electricity markets for the economic growth of Africa.

Reliable energy security may accelerate other programmes at sub-regional level for example the rural electrification through the extension of electric grid and cross boarder connections. This is made possible because of the surplus financial resources that might be realised from the deferment of generation expansion and the benefits derived from less imported power. For example the number of electrified rural has increased significantly when it embarked on the intergrated energy planning policy.

Integrating energy sources means implementing similar energy policies in individual country. Such integration helps to increase efficiency in the energy utilisation of energy hence helps to solve energy conflicts in energy rich countries in the SADC region for example in Angola, hence increasing energy security that resist international oil shock waves like the middle east crisis which can cause inflation increases ,loss of jobs and hence poverty.

Also in times of natural hazards like droughts, cross-linkages of energy system, helps the nations to resist impacts to the societies for example in Zimbabwe, it is supplied by the linkage between kariba supply, Carbora bass in Mozambique and south Africa such linkages can sustain the nation in such times to reduce shortages and hence retard economic growth.

Therefore to a greater extent the integration of energy policies in the SADC region will result in the problem solving of scarcity of resources in different regions of the board, hence leading to health economic development, and empowerment of people hence poverty alleviation in SADC region.

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