CROSS-BORDER power trading in SADC is facilitated by the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), and the trading allows countries to buy and sell electricity through an existing network of transmission lines and relay substations.

 This enables the exchange of power from those countries that have energy surpluses to those that suffer deficits. All mainland SADC countries, with the exception of Angola, Malawi and Tanzania, are interconnected to the regional grid through SAPP.

To ensure all countries benefit from this initiative, the region has resolved to fast track the implementation of priority regional transmission projects in order to connect the three remaining countries to the regional grid.

These projects include the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya Interconnector, Namibia- Angola Interconnector and Malawi-Mozambique interconnector.

The Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya Interconnector will link Tanzania and Kenya to the SAPP grid, and ultimately link SAPP to the East African Power Pool, thereby improving energy trading in southern and eastern Africa.

The Malawi-Mozambique interconnector will allow Malawi to have access to the regional market through Mozambique’s interconnected grid with Zimbabwe and South Africa.

With regard the Namibia-Angola Interconnector, the latter will be connected to SAPP through Namibia.

The ministers also called for the completion of the Zimbabwe-Zambia- Botswana-Namibia (ZiZaBoNa) as well as the Mozambique-Zimbabwe-South Africa (MoZiSA) transmission projects, which are meant to relieve congestion on the regional grid and facilitate greater electricity trade.