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Middle East and Africa The Economist December 16th 2017 41

Also in this section
42 Not another fish in the sea
42 Jacob Zuma’s legal troubles
43 Vladimir Putin’s victory lap
43 Tunisia’s labour pains
44 A rabbi without equal

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Electrification weaksupply. All over Africa, rich residents
Shock therapy of big cities keep generators fuelled with
diesel and large firmsbuild theirown pow-
er stations alongside new factories. A lack
ofelectricityiswidelythoughtto be one of
the main obstacles to economic growth.
Yet producing more power does little if
NAIROBI people are unwillingorunable to pay forit.
More Africans than everare connected to mains power. Yetmanyare notusing it Earlier this year officials at KPLC said that
much
almost1m customerswho are connected to
OURISTS have long been drawn to most13,000kWh each. In Kenya electricity the grid have bought no powerat all.
THell’sGate National Parkin Kenya byits use per person rose by just 10% between In much of Africa the problem stems
steep cliffs, plentiful zebras and spectacu- 2010 and 2014, even as the number of peo- from botched regulations and weak states.
lar canyons. Recently there is a new attrac- ple connected more than doubled. In Tanzania private firms have invested in
tion; a spa set amid the cliffs, with a huge Some greens may hail such frugality. gas-fired power plants but Tanesco, the
pool heated by the energy stored in the Theyshould not: the alternative to electric- government utility, refuses to pay them for
Earth’s crust. Curiously, it is not run by a ity is often filthy, dangerous charcoal the electricity it distributes. In Nigeria,
tourist company, but by KenGen, the na- stoves and kerosene lamps. Besides, if util- though the grid is fully privatised, electric-
tional electricity generator. It abuts the Ol- ities are unable to sell enough electricity to ity prices are kept artificially low by the
karia geothermal power plants, from cover their costs then they cannot invest in regulator. So distribution companies re-
which plumes of steam pour into the sky. maintainingormodernisingtheirgrids. fuse to buy power from the generating
Since 1982 four power stations have The weaknessofdemand is, on the face companies, complaining that they would
opened here; a fifth is being built and work of it, somewhat puzzling. Sub-Saharan Af- make a loss selling it on. And customers
on a sixth will begin soon. Energy harvest- rica, with a billion people, generates less rarely pay, since the supply is so erratic.
ed from volcanic heat now provides al- electricity than South Korea. Nigeria, the Elsewhere, as in the slums of Nairobi, peo-
most halfthe powerKenya needs. region’s most populous country, produces ple connect themselves to the grid through
Electrification has been one of the less than half as much as Romania despite illegal hookups.
country’s great successes over the past few having almost ten times more people. This Some well-intended policies may also
decades. It is not just new generators; the had long been assumed to be because of be inadvertently hampering electrifica-
number of people connected to the power tion. Among these, says Emma Gordon of
network has also soared. According to the Verisk Maplecroft, a British consultancy, is
Kenya Power and Lighting Company Crossed wires the extension ofelectricitygridsto poorru-
(KPLC), nearly three-quarters of Kenyans Sub-Saharan Africa ral areas. Bringingelectricityto subsistence
are now connected, up from barely a quar- Electric-power consumption Access to electricity farmers certainly improves their lot. But it
terin 2013. The trend in manyAfrican coun- kWh per person % of population is not cheap: a single connection in Kenya
tries has been in the same direction. Ac- 600 60 can cost nearly $2,500. And since few peo-
cording to the World Bank, the proportion 500 50 ple in rural areas can afford to buy power-
of Africans with access to electricity in- 400 40 hungry appliances such as fridges or air-
creased from 19% in 1991to 37% in 2014. conditioners, there is little chance that util-
Yet this achievement is not quite as im- 300 30 ities will make much of a return on their
pressive as it sounds. More people than 200 20 investment. For people in rural areas, off-
ever may be connected to electricity, but 100 10 grid power such as solar panels or small
they are not using it much. In 2014 each Af- hydroelectric systems may be a better op-
rican consumed, on average, just 483 kilo- 0 1990 95 2000 05 10 16 0 tion. Abandoning the attempt to connect
watt hours (kWh). That is less than in the them to the grid would mean more money
1980s. Americans, for comparison, used al- Sources: World Bank; IEA to invest in urban areas. 1