A newly created task force to review the Grid Code prepared by the West African Power Pool (WAPP) has begun work in Accra. The five-day meeting which ended on Friday, April 21, 2023 is the first of a series sessions planned for the review of the document considered critical to the operations of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market.
Members of the task force are, among others, to review the WAPP Grid Code by considering the practices in the industry as well as harmonizing the content of the WAPP Grid Code, such as the terminology, procedures and rules, with the existing reference documents of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market as approved by ERERA.
The report of the task force will first be presented for validation to ERERA’s joint Consultative Committees of Regulators and Operators, an organ set up to assists ERERA’s Regulatory Council in its decision-making role.
The WAPP Grid Code provides the general rules based on a set of principles governing the status, operation, and development of cross-border interconnections and the regional electricity market in West Africa.
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The Grid Code has eight elements, and they include the principles and general rules for the development of the regional electricity market and for its approval, compliance, implementation, use and effective management.
Put together, the Code defines and regulates the process for the development planning of the cross-border interconnections of the WAPP Power System, as well as specifies the principles, methods and technical rules applicable to the regional electricity market and governs commercial transactions relating to cross-border flows of electricity on the WAPP interconnected transmission system.
In addition, the Grid Code specifies minimum technical and design requirements for meters and establishes basic rules for meter access and metering data collection for WAPP stakeholders. It also addresses training requirements for transmission system operator staff responsible for planning, market operations and system operations to deal with the complexity of the WAPP interconnected transmission system.
The Chairman of ERERA, Engr. Laurent Rodrigue Tossou, who addressed the opening of the meeting on Monday, April 17, 2023, said that the development of a regional network code will make it possible to transition to the second phase of the power market and clarify the rules relating to the main functions of the market in a single integrated document.
