81284472-Development of a least cost investment plan and regulatory frameworks for BESS deployment in West Africa (WAPP grid)

In order to address the energy challenges of the region and to pool efforts at exploiting the region"s abundant natural resources, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), together with its Department in charge of Energy, established an institutional governance mechanism that resulted in the creation of specialised institutions and agencies with different mandates: 1. the West African Power Pool (WAPP) integrates the national power systems of Member States into a unified regional electricity market and coordinate trading of electricity among member States, 2. the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) regulates cross-border interconnections and electricity trading, and 3. the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) mainstreams renewable energy and energy efficiency into energy activities and policies for the region. The ongoing investment program of the WAPP is defined in the 2019 - 2033 ECOWAS Master Plan for the development of Regional Power Generation and Transmission Infrastructure that was approved in December 2018 by the Authority of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government. The ECOWAS Master Plan is based on a least-cost planning and due to the lower costs associated with the development of the renewable energy technologies, it foresees a transition towards sustainable use of renewable resources. As a result, the region is achieving its energy transition by moving towards a massive integration of especially variable renewable energy sources (vRE), such as solar PV and wind. However, in order to achieve the integration of vRE into the grid, there is the need to guaranttee flexibility of system response to cope with the intermittency of these sources. This calls for the exploration of the use of battery energy storage systems to provide grid services such as frequency regulation, flexible ramping, black start, congestion relief, etc. Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are presently gaining a lot of ground in providing alternative grid support and ancillary services. Due to the recent fall in market prices, battery energy storage has increased in competitiveness and could therefore become a valid option to be integrated into the project portfolio of the ECOWAS Master Plan as well as in those of the member countries aiming to increase their renewable energy capacities. Also, a number of factors including lack of conducive regional regulatory framework are limiting its deployment. The deployment of utility-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) must therefore be harmonized and integrated, in compliance with regional regulatory frameworks, in order to support the stability and reliability of the WAPP interconnected grid and the provision of ancillary services.