Tambacounda: The power interconnection project that is transforming an entire region

The sun has set in Tambacounda at 18:35 GMT on this twentieth day of October, 2023, but this regional capital in eastern Senegal has not been plunged into darkness. Better still, the power generators of companies, hotels, and shops have remained silent. This was not the case a mere four years ago in this border region of Mali, Mauritania, and The Gambia.

“It was a nightmare, for the entire country!” recalls Thiédel Diallo, the Mayor of Goudiry since about three decades.

The situation was just as bad for businesses. “In 2018, Sodefitex (a textile company) operated its generators for a total of 704 hours to keep all its factories up and running at considerable cost to the company,” remembers Sadio Sèye, the company’s Operations Director. “When we were lucky, the power outages would last only three or four hours a day. Otherwise, we could spend an entire day doing nothing,” notes Abdoul Aziz Makharera, the 29-year-old owner of the Daba carpentry.

Now just a distant memory

The “nightmare” is now just a distant memory that has faded with the construction of a high-voltage and advanced power network that now provides a continuous supply of electricity.

Just like the brand new Jollof Chicken restaurant, which is always full, new businesses have emerged all along the road through Tambacounda to Kidira, near the Malian border. These companies can now count on a steady and reliable supply of electricity to support their businesses and to run their households.

“In 2022, we used generators for only 70 hours across the five Sodefitex factories. So far in 2023, we have not had to turn on a single generator,” enthuses Sadio Seye. “It is a source of pride and relief, because we were preparing to ask our Board of Directors for a big cash investment to purchase some new generators.”

Abdoul-Aziz Makhanera manages operations at the Daba workshop and issues instructions to his workers. Confident of a continuous supply of electricity, he retires to his office and keeps an eye on the screens that monitor the workshop floor, before shifting his attention back and forth to another big screen showing YouTube tutorials on the art of woodworking. “I learned all the furniture designs that you see here by watching these tutorials on the internet. Sometimes I stay here until one in the morning to learn new techniques on YouTube.” This young self-taught furniture maker now employs 19 additional workers and toils long hours to meet the demand from deep rural Senegal as well as from neighboring Mali.

For his part, the Mayor of Goudiry is now quite satisfied with the new developments. He notes that, following the commissioning of the new infrastructure, more than 10,000 new customers in his commune are being served by the country’s national electricity company (Senelec), “a threefold increase.” The same applies to the income of the municipal government, which levies a tax of 2.5% on the total cost of electricity in each invoice.

From a forgotten town to an enviable position as an energy hub

Thanks to the OMVS Transmission Expansion Project -- OMVS is the Senegal River Basin Development Organization--, comprising Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal, and financed by the World Bank through the International Development Association (IDA) to the tune of $91.5 million, a 225-kV power transmission network has been built, connecting the power station in Kayes (Mali) to the one in Tambacounda (Senegal). The goal is to reinforce electricity trade between Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. The commissioning and start-up of this 285.3 km grid (2/3 in Senegal and 1/3 in Mali) has sparked the transformation of the region.

“The entire region is being transformed!” says Oumar Mamadou Baldé, Governor of the Tambacounda Region. “There is now a stable electricity supply that has allowed our local economy to develop and thrive over the last four years, with Tambacounda being transformed into a subregional energy hub. This has now placed us in a very enviable position.”

Other power transmission infrastructures have also been financed under the regional project, with the objective of extending the network to other regions. The strategic substation in Bakel is one example.  

“There are five substations on the Senegalese transmission network, and Bakel is the first such station along the transmission line coming from Mali. It includes lines that transport electricity to other cities in Senegal, as well as to various cities and towns in Mauritania, including Nouakchott and Sélibabi, and to villages along the Gouré river,” explains Ousmane Diouf, Deputy Station Chief in Bakel. “It’s a strategic substation that helps ensure the stability of the network. If there is a problem on this line, then Senegal and Mauritania would be directly affected, especially Nouakchott, the capital.”

The Bank-financed interconnection infrastructure is equipped to transmit 600 megawatts of electricity to the three countries, as follows:  52% for Mali, 33% for Senegal, and 15% for Mauritania.

“The charm of this project lies in the interconnection between the States and, particularly, in the cost savings generated from the power supplied to them by SOGEM (Société de gestion de Manantali, the OMVS implementing agency),” enthuses Tamsir Ndiaye, the Director General of SOGEM during project implementation, and current Director General of the national renewable energies’ agency. “Today, a kilowatt-hour sold to the national power companies in the three countries is at one third of the local thermal power generation price.”

The project has also brought great added value, in the form of the exploitation of optical fiber. “The interconnected grids were built using fiber optic ground wires. AT the time, the OMVS did not perceive the importance of fiber optics beyond the operation and protection of transmission networks, because their main goal was to produce electricity,” recalls Tamsir Ndiaye. “Today, we have an operator who exploits the surplus fiber optic capacity for telecommunications purposes, to further promote connectivity in the region.”

From a regional standpoint, it is a success story that opens the door for a regional electricity market in Western Africa

The World Bank-financed project has strengthened regional integration, by integrating the OMVS grid into the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP), thereby enhancing the prospects for increasing the electricity trade.

“The OMVS interconnected grid is the most advanced subregional power pool in West Africa. In addition to expanding the electricity trade between Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal, it provides a key foundation on which more large-scale electricity generation projects can be developed for the regional power market,” says Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa. “It’s a regional success story, in that renewable energies absolutely have to be developed and shared in order to reduce production costs, contribute to job creation, and support the economic and social transformation of the region.”

World Bank support for the promotion of the electricity trade in West Africa has just taken a major step forward, with the completion of the 225-kV transmission line of the Gambia River Basin Development Organization (OMVG), extending across 1,667 kilometers, and connecting Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau through 15 substations such as the Tambacounda power station. This major achievement eventually opens the door for Guinea-Bissau to join the interconnected grid and to benefit from a lower-cost energy supply imported from neighboring countries. The cornerstone for strengthening the energy resilience of the 14 West African countries has, therefore, just been laid.