CIGRE Academy in West Africa - A SC B2 initiative

By Pierre Van Dyke, Chair SC B2, supported by Kurt Dedekind, Chair SC C6, Antonio Iliceto, Chair SC C1, Mamadou A. Sylla, West African Power Pool (WAPP), and Sonja Zahed, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

The vast and deep knowledge base within CIGRE can help accelerating the spread of power system outreach and quality.  With this in mind, CIGRE founded an ad-hoc Working Group for Africa within the Technical Council. One of the main initiatives is the establishment of the ‘CIGRE Academy,’ aimed at building the capacity of African professionals by sharing CIGRE expertise with electricity system operators, utility engineers, and university scholars.

The academy was launched by Antonio Iliceto, Chair of Africa WG and Chair of SC C1 ‘Power system development and economics,’ and Kurt Dedekind, Secretary of Africa WG and Chair of SC C6 ‘Active distribution systems and distributed energy resources.’ They held the first three training sessions in East Africa, hosted by the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania since July 2023, with a program on Rural Electrification. A second session was held in March 2024 on Substations by Koji Kawakita, Chair of SC B3 ‘Substations and electrical installations.’ The third session took place in December 2024, led by Nenad Uzelac, former Chair of SC A3 ‘T&D equipment’. Each session’s topics and level of detail were carefully designed based on the audience’s local priorities to maximize impact and usability.

Following this, the CIGRE Africa WG noted a strong interest in training on overhead lines, leading to the organization of an SC B2 ‘Overhead lines’ training session in West Africa, held in Ghana in March 2025. This session was hosted by the Volta River Authority, the national electric utility, and supported by WAPP, the West Africa Power Pool, an international organisation promoting power systems cooperation in the region. Twenty-four engineers from fourteen countries participated, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The teaching team, supervised by Pierre Van Dyke, included eight overseas speakers from four continents, along with several individuals supporting organisational coordination and financial support. 

The training course was part of WAPP's strategic regional capacity development strategy and was co-organised by WANC (CIGRE West African Committee), WAPP, and GIZ (German cooperation agency). The CIGRE speakers worked voluntarily and implemented the course in collaboration with selected trainers from WAPP’s network of regional training centres.

As part of its policy to establish a regional training system and capitalize on experience and lessons learned, WAPP follows a comprehensive strategy to conduct all capacity-building activities for its staff and the staff of its member electricity utilities at one of its five training centres. In agreement with WAPP, the training course was held at VRA Academy in Akuse from March 4 to 7, 2025, including a technical tour of the Ghana Grid Company Ltd (GRIDCo) Control Centre on Friday, March 7. VRA Academy, part of WAPP’s network of regional training centres, provided all necessary materials and equipment for the successful implementation of the training course and accommodation for the participants.

Many thanks to Sonja Zahed, Mamadou Sylla, Kurt Dedekind, and Sharon Mushabe (CIGRE South Africa) for handling the event logistics.

The Workshop schedule is shown in the next table. To increase the impact of the lectures and leverage the bilingual ability of Canadian speakers, Pierre, Sébastien and Jean-Philippe gave their presentations in English and repeated them in French for the benefit of participants from French-speaking countries.

At the commencement of the session, representatives from key West African power sector stakeholders took the stage to set the tone for the event. Distinguished speakers from the West African Power Pool (WAPP), the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), and the CIGRE West African National Committee (WANC) delivered introductory remarks, highlighting the significance of the gathering and outlining their respective roles and contributions to the regional energy landscape.

Following these introductions, Philippe Adam, the Secretary General of CIGRE, participated online and officially welcomed all participants. In his address, he expressed gratitude to the organizers and attendees, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing within the industry. He underscored the pivotal role of capacity-building sessions in fostering dialogue and advancing innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the power sector in West Africa.

We had very interesting presentations from selected trainers of WAPP’s training centres (Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Nigeria) about their concerns and achievements, which initiated discussions. The workshop was mainly dedicated to Overhead lines and enriched with C1, C6, and A3 presentations from Antonio, Kurt and Nenad. Thanks to them for actively joining the event.

The workshop was followed by a visit to the Network Control Centre of the Ghana Grid Company ltd (GRIDCo) on the last day.

An important aim of the CIGRE workshop was to strengthen the technical capacity of professionals in the electricity sector in West Africa and to assist with capacity development in the region. Networking opportunities arising from such sessions were thus crucial. Professor Langlois from Sherbrooke University, Canada, and Dr. Van Dyke, an associate professor at the same university, discussed with attendees interested in pursuing graduate studies the possibility of doing so with a local West African university and a co-direction from one of them. This avenue is seen as a way to ensure continuous and permanent technical exchange, and it raised the interest of two West African engineers. On the same thread, Antonio Iliceto established contacts between an Italian-based philanthropic association he chairs and GRIDCo to support financially young talented engineers in enhancing their capabilities for the benefit of their country. 

The preparations and presentations at VRA Academy in Akuse were sincerely appreciated by the West African colleagues, and it was an enriching experience for the speakers as well, with interesting questions and exchanges with the participants. Certificates of attendance were delivered to the attendees.

We received registrations from West African members for the CIGRE Montreal symposium to be held next September in Canada, as well as requests to join B2 Working Groups, indicating a positive trend in pursuing our technical exchanges. Finally, a CIGRE symposium is planned in Senegal in 2027, and SC B2 will be there.