Kouame Yao

TRANSCO CLSG

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) organization was established by the highest decisionmaking body of ECOWAS, the Authority of Heads of State and Government of Member States, as a mechanism and institutional framework for integrating the national power systems of ECOWAS member countries. The objective of the WAPP is to establish a regional electricity market in West Africa through the judicious development and realization of key priority infrastructure that would permit the accessibility to economic energy resources, to all member states of the ECOWAS and help meet the energy needs of the ECOWAS citizens by providing least cost reliable and sustainable electricity supply for economic development. The Implementation Strategy of WAPP is based on developing complementary and mutually reinforcing infrastructure sub-programs, which will result in an integrated electricity system and market in West Africa. It is funded by the World Bank (WB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the KFW. Among the infrastructure sub-programs to be developed by the WAPP, there is the electrical interconnection between Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (CLSG). This project aims to integrate these post-conflict countries in the regional electricity market created by the WAPP. In conformity with the above-mentioned enactment, the four countries have duly signed and ratified an International Treaty establishing a Regional Transmission Company (RTC) known as TRANSCO CLSG with the mandate to finance, construct, own, operate and further develop the CLSG transmission interconnector. CLSG project will give the following results: ● A 225-kV overhead transmission line of approximately 1,303 km across the four countries involved; ● Eleven (11) new 225 kV substations, five (5) in Liberia and one (1) in Guinea. ● Extension of an existing substation in Côte d'Ivoire; ● Installation of Static VAr Compensators at five substations