Dr Manny Macatangay and Prof Volker Röben deliver online training on regional wholesale electricity markets to EREA

Dr Manny Macatangay and Prof Volker Röben have delivered an online training programme on regional wholesale electricity markets to representatives of the Energy Regulators Association of East Africa (“EREA”) on Wednesday 7 - 9 April 2021.



The objectives for the EREA training are to understand the fundamental drivers of wholesale electricity markets, and to review the institutional arrangements associated with them, with emphasis on the prospects for introducing them in Africa. The participants have the opportunity not only to review the theoretical and empirical literature on electricity economics, but also to deploy various analytical tools in order to create actionable knowledge, such as policy analysis, regulatory frameworks, or legislative themes.



The pedagogical approach of the online training is an activity mix of lectures and laboratory sessions. The lectures provide a foundation on the fundamental drivers of wholesale electricity markets and their associated institutional arrangements. For each topic, the context, economics principles, legal frameworks, and data are explained through discussions of journal articles, scholarly books, official documents of government or international agencies, or empirical reports. The laboratory sessions offer opportunities for the hands-on application of analytical tools (e.g. the estimation of locational power prices, the determination of the shadow value of generation capacity, the optimisation of gas transportation contracts, etc.).



Dr Geoffrey Mabea, Executive Secretary of EREA, was appointed to his current position not long after his 2019 graduation from CEPMLP. He wrote a PhD thesis on nodal pricing in East Africa under the supervision of Manny. With headquarters in Tanzania, EREA is an association of utility regulators in Burundi, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zanzibar, and Southern Sudan (the Democratic Republic of the Congo has applied to join it). It seeks to pool expertise in energy sector regulation, promote regional cooperation in energy infrastructure planning, develop sustainable energy projects, harmonize market structures, and encourage capacity building. Geoffrey is leading the pursuit of an Energy Union for East Africa, in coordination with other regional or international organisations, such as the Council of European Energy Regulators in Brussels and the African Development Bank in Côte d’Ivoire.



Before doing his PhD at CEPMLP, Geoffrey had worked in the electric power sector, and completed a master’s degree in economics and energy policy from the University of Surrey with distinction. During his time at CEPMLP, Geoffrey was a well-regarded tutor for two foundational modules, Analytical Tools for Energy Economics and Contemporary Issues in Energy Economics. Geoffrey and Manny have recently published “Towards electricity markets’ integration and investment in transmission capacity: East African Community Power Markets” in Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy, a journal of the International Association for Energy Economics (whose annual conferences Manny had been regularly attending over the years).