Electrification of large cities in Africa

As populations across Africa grow, so too do African cities. But despite their size this rapid growth has meant that many may not be well served by the national electricity grid. These cities typically feature a massive diesel-powered generation system in the center that can power up businesses and cover other key needs such as healthcare – but vast numbers of buildings remain unelectrified, while diesel is expensive, polluting and unreliable.

VIDA was recently commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to analyze Mbuji-Mayi and Kananga, two large provincial cities in the Congo, to identify the potential for decentralized renewable electrification. The project was designed to assess investment risks and provide information on the mini-grid market potential to help prospective private developers and investors enter and develop the Congolese clean energy access market.

“With Mbuji-Maya, when we started, there was no reliable data even on how many people live there,” says Nabin, co-founder of VIDA. “The data told us there was around 1 million people. Using the software, we can answer questions such as how many households there are and what kind of demand we can forecast.”

VIDA software runs at a high predictive accuracy rate of more than 75 percent. This was the first time a project of this scale was completed in Africa.

Based on this information, the IFC can now work with private sustainable energy developers with far greater accuracy to identify and implement solar energy solutions in these cities.