This dataset has been developed by KTH Division of Energy Systems Analysis in the Open Source Energy Modelling System (OSeMOSYS) , as further research of the existing TEMBA- model (The Electricity Model Base for Africa). A universal electricity access across the African continent is achieved by 2030 at a specific electricity consumption level. Several generation options are allowed in each nation, while cross-border electricity trade is enabled at existing and future planned levels.

An indicative analysis of investment opportunities in the African electricity supply sector — Using TEMBA (The Electricity Model Base for Africa),2016. URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082615300065

As of 2021, the primary energy supply in the African continent was around 35.7 million terajoules (TJ). The highest country for primary energy supply was Nigeria, with it amounting to 6.9 million TJ. South Africa, Egypt, and Algeria followed with 5.2 million TJ, 4.1 million TJ, and 2.7 million TJ, respectively. Moreover, these four countries also had the highest primary energy production in the continent.

In 2021, 72 percent of the population surveyed in South Africa reported being connected to an electricity supply that worked most or all of the time. For 20 percent of the respondents, the electrical connection worked about half of the time, occasionally, or never. Lastly, nine percent of the individuals did not have a connection to the electric grid.

Cabo Verde recorded the highest electricity price for households in Africa. As of June 2024, one kilowatt-hour costs around 0.35 U.S. dollars in the country. Kenya and Sierra Leone followed, with households paying 0.26 and 0.25 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour, respectively. Mail, Burkina Faso, and Gabon also recorded relatively higher prices for electricity on the continent. On the other hand, Egypt, Zambia, Angola, and Libya registered the lowest prices for electric energy in Africa. Countries usually retain high prices for household and business electricity In Africa, countries with high electricity prices for households also tend to have higher prices for businesses. For instance, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, and Kenya’s energy prices for companies placed them among the most expensive four countries on the continent. As of late 2023, the electricity prices stood at around 0.2, 0.2, and 0.19 U.S. dollars per kilowatt-hour, respectively. Electricity access and reliability vary across the continent A significant share of Africans still live with no access to electricity. Although almost all of North Africa's population had access to electricity, the other regions had lower electricity access in 2021. Western, Southern, and Eastern Africa had just over 50 percent of their citizens living in electrified areas, while in Central Africa it stood at around 31 percent. Nevertheless, according to a survey, two Eastern African countries ranked highest with the most reliable electricity supply on the continent. Between 2021 and 2023, some 99 percent of Mauritians and 96 percent of Seychellois reported having a supply that worked most or all the time.

Statistics illustrates consumption, production, prices, and trade of Electricity Supply or Production Meters in Africa from Jan 2019 to Jan 2025.

Statistics illustrates consumption, production, prices, and trade of Electricity Supply or Production Meters in South Africa from 2007 to 2024.

This dataset contains data provided alongside the paper "An all-Africa dataset of energy model “supply regions” for solar PV and wind power".

It concerns a novel representative subset of attractive sites for solar PV and onshore wind power for the entire African continent. We refer to these sites as “Model Supply Regions” (MSRs). This MSR dataset was created from an in-depth analysis of various existing datasets on resource potential, grid infrastructure, land use, topography and others (see Methods), and achieves hourly temporal resolution and kilometre-scale spatial resolution. This dataset fills an important research need by closing the gap between comprehensive datasets on African VRE potential (such as the Global Solar Atlas and Global Wind Atlas) on the one hand, and the input needed to run cost-optimisation models on the other. It also allows a detailed analysis of the trade-offs involved in exploiting excellent, but far-from-grid resources as compared to mediocre but more accessible resources, which is a crucial component of power systems planning to be elaborated for many African countries.

Five separate datasets are included:

(1) 20220412_country_maps.rar: Country-level visualisations (in the form of maps) of the screened MSRs. We screened the dataset according to the criterion that the total area of screened MSRs should not exceed 5% of an individual country’s surface area. See also (4).

(2) 20220412_excel_files.rar: Excel files containing the screened MSRs suggested for model inclusion alongside various metadata. See also (5).

(3) 20220412_shapefiles.rar: Shapefiles containing the screened MSRs in GIS format.

(4) 20220705_clusters_maps.zip: Same as (1), but showing the clusters (formed from individual MSRs) described in the publication. We use an example of clustering down to 10, 5 or 2 clusters per country, depending on country size. The archive also contains Excel files summarising the clusters, including model-ready hourly profiles.

(5) 20220822_excel_files_prescreen.rar: Same as (2), but containing all identified MSRs prior to screening.

Papua New Guinea Imports of gas, liquid/electricity supply/production meters from South Africa was US$580 during 2021, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Papua New Guinea Imports of gas, liquid/electricity supply/production meters from South Africa - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on March of 2025.

More than half of sub-Saharan Africa derives their electricity supply from hydro sources. Most of the region's growing electricity needs are supplied through new grid connections.

Note: This dataset has been updated with transmission lines for the MENA region. This is the most complete and up-to-date open map of Africa's electricity grid network. This dataset serves as an updated and improved replacement for the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) data that was published in 2007. Coverage This dataset includes planned and existing grid lines for all continental African countries and Madagascar, as well as the Middle East region. The lines range in voltage from sub-kV to 700 kV EHV lines, though there is a very large variation in the completeness of data by country. An interactive tool has been created for exploring this data, the Africa Electricity Grids Explorer. Sources The primary sources for this dataset are as follows: Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) OSM © OpenStreetMap contributors For MENA: Arab Union of Electricity and country utilities. For West Africa: West African Power Pool (WAPP) GIS database World Bank projects archive and IBRD maps There were many additional sources for specific countries and areas. This information is contained in the files of this dataset, and can also be found by browsing the individual country datasets, which contain more extensive information. Limitations Some of the data, notably that from the AICD and from World Bank project archives, may be very out of date. Where possible this has been improved with data from other sources, but in many cases this wasn't possible. This varies significantly from country to country, depending on data availability. Thus, many new lines may exist which aren't shown, and planned lines may have completely changed or already been constructed. The data that comes from World Bank project archives has been digitized from PDF maps. This means that these lines should serve as an indication of extent and general location, but shouldn't be used for precisely location grid lines.

South Africa Imports from United States of Gas, Liquid/Electricity Supply/Production Meters was US$1.58 Million during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. South Africa Imports from United States of Gas, Liquid/Electricity Supply/Production Meters - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on March of 2025.

South Africa Imports of gas, liquid/electricity supply/production meters from Trinidad And Tobago was US$58 during 2019, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. South Africa Imports of gas, liquid/electricity supply/production meters from Trinidad And Tobago - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on March of 2025.

This dataset is now superseded by the updated Africa Electricity Transmission and Distribution Grid Map (2017). Please use that if looking for the most up to date data. The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) was an unprecedented knowledge program on Africa’s infrastructure that grew out of the pledge by the G8 Summit of 2005 at Gleneagles to substantially increase ODA assistance to Africa, particularly to the infrastructure sector, and the subsequent formation of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA). The AICD study was founded on the recognition that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffers from a very weak infrastructural base, and that this is a key factor in the SSA region failing to realize its full potential for economic growth, international trade, and poverty reduction. The study broke new ground, with primary data collection efforts covering network service infrastructures (ICT, power, water & sanitation, road transport, rail transport, sea transport, and air transport) from 2001 to 2006 in 24 selected African countries AICD has been implemented by the World Bank on behalf of a steering committee representing the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Africa’s regional economic communities, the African Development Bank, and major infrastructure donors.

South Sudan ranked as the least-electrified country in the world in 2022, with only 8.4 percent of its population having access to electricity. Burundi fared only slightly better, with an access rate of around 10 percent. Electricity access in Africa As of 2022, the top 20 least-electrified countries in the world were all located in Africa, except for Papua New Guinea. In fact, while the number of people without electricity worldwide more than halved in the past two decades, the figure for Sub-Saharan Africa has remained fairly stable in the period, accounting for roughly eight out of every 10 people without electricity in 2023. The region also shows great disparities in access between urban and rural areas. In 2022, over 80 percent of the urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa had access to electricity, while the same was true for only 31 percent of rural dwellers. Global power trends Despite disparities, electricity consumption worldwide has seen continuous growth in the past century, more than tripling since 1980. As more people gain access to this service, and different sectors (such as heating and transportation) see a growth in electrification, global power generation is forecast to double again by the middle of the century.

Nearly all people with an electric connection in Mauritius and Seychelles between 2021 and 2023 reported that the electricity supply worked most or all the time. The countries recorded the highest reliability rates in Africa, considering the 39 nations surveyed. On average, 44 percent of respondents on the continent had a reliable supply of electricity.

South Africa Imports from Japan of Gas, Liquid/Electricity Supply/Production Meters was US$10 Thousand during 2024, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. South Africa Imports from Japan of Gas, Liquid/Electricity Supply/Production Meters - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on March of 2025.

Statistics illustrates consumption, production, prices, and trade of Gas, liquid or electricity supply or production meters, including calibrating meters therefor in South Africa from 2007 to 2024.

Abstract

The data comes from the Electricity, Gas and Water Supply Iindustry Large Sample Survey by StatsSA which aims to provide financial, production, employment and related information for the electricity, gas and water supply industry in South Africa. The survey was conducted irregularly. This survey is based on a complete enumeration of private and public enterprises contributing to the top 99,5% of the industry turnover and adjustment factors were applied to compensate for the units contributing to the bottom 0,5% of industry turnover. Results of the survey are mainly used within Stats SA for benchmarking the gross domestic product (GDP) and its components. These statistics are also used by government to make decisions on industry policies and plans, and in monitoring the performance and contribution of individual industries to the South African economy. The private sector uses the data to analyse comparative business and industry performance.

Geographic coverage

The survey has national coverage.

Analysis unit

Establishments

Kind of data

Time-Series

Mode of data collection

Face-to-Face, Internet and Telephone

Argentina Imports of gas, liquid/electricity supply/production meters from South Africa was US$30.5 Thousand during 2019, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Argentina Imports of gas, liquid/electricity supply/production meters from South Africa - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on March of 2025.

South Africa Electricity Distribution: ESKOM: Northern Cape data was reported at 495.000 GWh in Sep 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 510.000 GWh for Aug 2018. South Africa Electricity Distribution: ESKOM: Northern Cape data is updated monthly, averaging 446.000 GWh from Jan 2002 (Median) to Sep 2018, with 201 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 586.000 GWh in Dec 2014 and a record low of 330.000 GWh in Dec 2002. South Africa Electricity Distribution: ESKOM: Northern Cape data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Statistics South Africa. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.RB001: Electricity Generation.