I wish to commend the author for this important topic - Powering Up the Continent's Economies.

For the past decade or so many African policy makers, NEPAD, UNIDO etc and their World Bank advisors have promoted the concept of the grand African interconnection grid as the ultimate answer to Africa's chronic energy problems. Unfortunately the this idea though well intended is largely a fallacy and goes against current research in energy economics. The idea was initially anchored by a model from Purdue university. Apart from the fact that the model was from a wrong Western context, even the West are now systematically abandoning it. The most important point is that transportation of electric energy is extremely expensive. Delivery economics for electricity is very different from gas or water. Yes, it is important to extend the grid network everywhere to serve high quality loads like health, education and communication services. These are moderately sized loads and require moderate size infrastructure. But large industrial loads must always be constructed close to generation source to be sustainable. With inter-regional common markets evolving this should be easy to understand. Take Tete province in Mozambique for example. It's complete madness generating power from Cahora Bassa dam and taking it 1500 km to South Africa through a very costly network and losing hundreds of megawatts on the way. The only sensible thing would be to build an industrial base in the Zambezi basin itself. It would be cheap and require no maintenance on the grid. The concept of Southern African Power Pool sounds great but when you understand that even South Africa straggles to deliver adequate power from Johannesburg to Cape Town then you would begin to understand my point. Africa is only plaaning its industry now. So they have a chance to plan and locate it inthe right places.

The same problems of poor governance that bedevil African countries spill over into the power sector. The power development, management and operations are now all subject to political patronage so that the people who run these organizations do so not because of their technical or managerial skills and aptitude but because they have political connections.

All politicians are interested in is getting their village(s) connected to the national grid, which is run by their counsins regardless of whether the cousins are qualified.

In that kind of environment it is not only hard to attract invest it is also impossible to invest resources effectively and efficiently. The Congo River is one source of power that is still has remain a pontential that is only referred in terms of future and not in the terms of needs of today. The power sector needs the same openess in its development and management as in the political arena. As for the losses in power - even in the USA the power loses amount to 67 % percent - this is a technical problem that power industry has still to overcome in terms of designing smart power grid. Fortunately it is gaining some traction especially in the light of concerns of global warming.

It is even hard to formulate a much needed future agenda on energy namely: renewables (solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass) and yes nuclear. Africa has the unranium and plotonium.

The corrupt and tyrantic governments have rendered Africa strved of energy and powerless.

The line loses can be overcome by building smart power grids, which are becoming ever possible with telecommunications and computer technologies that are becoming ever cheaper, IF the governance improves concomitantly that is.