Launch of Competitive Electricity Market in Eastern Africa Set For April 2026

The launch of the competitive Electricity Market in the Eastern Africa Region is set for April 2026, the Ag. Director General of the Independent Regulatory Board (IRB) of the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), Eng. Ziria Tibalwa Waako, has revealed.

Eng. Waako noted that the Market launch by the Council of Ministers (supreme Governing body of the EAPP) was expected in April 2026, adding that the IRB had taken the necessary steps “to ensure that upon Going Live, the Eastern Africa Electricity Market operates in a Transparent way, attracts investments, and delivers value for money for all the market participants”.

Eng. Waako, also Chief Executive Officer of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) in Uganda, made the revelation recently, while addressing the media at the end of a week-long Study Visit to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) in Harare – Zimbabwe.

The study visit, conducted in partnership with GET.transform, was intended to strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of the IRB to effectively and efficiently Regulate Eastern Africa’s upcoming regional competitive Electricity market, through effective tools, frameworks, and operational practices.

The IRB is advancing preparations to establish a robust Market Monitoring and Surveillance function to ensure transparency, fair competition, and system stability through cross-border power trade. The visit complements the process to develop the Procedures for Market monitoring, being undertaken by the IRB, with Funding from the African Development Bank.

The visit provided valuable practical insights in three critical areas for regional market operations, namely:

1. Transmission Pricing and Wheeling– exploring methodologies that enable fair, transparent, and efficient use of transmission networks across borders.

2. Market Monitoring and Surveillance– learning from established practices and tools that help ensure transparency, competition, and market stability. At the SAPP offices in Harare – Zimbabwe, the IRB team also got hands-on insights into live monitoring of the Southern African Electricity market.

3. Cross-Border Metering– understanding the technical and operational arrangements necessary to support accurate energy accounting and trusted cross-border trade.

As part of this study visit, the IRB and SAPP Signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a formal framework for cooperation between the IRB and SAPP. The MoU aims to promote regional infrastructure integration, enhance power systems reliability, affordability, accessibility and foster a harmonized regulatory environment between the Southern African Power Pool and the Eastern Africa Power Pool, in accordance with the respective mandates of the Two institutions.

Beyond intensive knowledge exchange and technical discussions, the visit reinforced the value of peer collaboration and experience-sharing in building strong regional institutions, capable of supporting sustainable Energy markets.

As the EAPP prepares to launch its regional Electricity market in April 2026, the knowledge gained during the study visit will directly support ongoing efforts to build a harmonized, inclusive, and effective regulatory framework for Eastern Africa’s Energy market.

The visit was supported by #ENGAGE, the BMZ-funded “Accelerating the Energy Transition in Africa” project, which aims to enhance the institutional and regulatory framework for Renewable Energy investments and increase access to Clean Energy across Africa.

The Eastern Africa Power Pool currently has a Membership of 13 (Thirteen Countries); namely: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Some of these countries (including Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania) are trading Electricity on a bilateral basis. However, the launch of the competitive Electricity Market in the Eastern Africa Region that is set for April 2026 is expected to lead to better efficiency, increased reliability, lower operational costs, and better integration of varied Renewable Energy sources.

On the other hand, the Southern African Power Pool, created in the year 1995 under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and based in Harare – Zimbabwe, is comprised of 12 (Twelve) Member Countries. These are: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.