Energy Security In West Africa: An Assessment Of Ghana’s Implementation Of The West African Power Pool (WAPP) And The ECOWAS Renewable Energy Policy (EREP)

ABSTRACT Energy security became critical in the past few decades when governments and intergovernmental organisations saw it prudent to ensure constant supply of energy for domestic and industrial consumption. This became pertinent after the devastating effect of global wars on energy supplies. With increased awareness of the significance of energy to the socioeconomic development of nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) formed the West African Power Pool (WAPP) to integrate the electricity market of Member States. The ECOWAS Renewable Energy Policy (EREP) was also introduced to facilitate the exploration of the renewable energy potentials of the sub-region. Under the WAPP and the EREP policy, Member States are required to harmonize their energy policies with regional energy frameworks. The study employed qualitative methods, using interviews and secondary data, to examine the extent to which Ghana’s national energy policies reflect that of the WAPP and the EREP, and evaluate their implementation, attendant challenges and implications for energy security. The study reveals that Ghana’s energy policies are consistent with regional energy frameworks. However, the implementation process is hindered by some challenges, chiefly financial and technical, affecting its ability to generate and export power at a competitive cost. As a result, the EREP's target of increasing renewable energy in the overall energy mix, excluding large hydro, to 10% by 2020 will be missed. In addition, the target to increase LPG for cooking to 36% by 2020 will be missed in rural communities but attainable in urban communities, where factors facilitating its usage are high. The study, therefore, recommends that Ghanaian authorities should adopt cost recovery and cost reduction measures, among others, to deal with the financial challenges of the power sector, explore alternative sources of funding for renewable energy projects due its high upfront cost and subsidise the cost of LPG for rural communities