Includes bibliographical references and index.

Africa unplugged -- The region's underdeveloped energy resources -- The lag in installed generation capacity -- Stagnant and inequitable access to electricity services -- Unreliable electricity supply -- The prevalence of back-up generators -- Increasing use of leased emergency power -- A power crisis exacerbated by drought, conflict, and high oil prices -- High power costs that generally do not cover costs -- Deficient power infrastructure constrains social and economic development -- The promise of regional power trade -- Uneven distribution and poor economies of scale -- Despite power pools, low regional power trade -- The potential benefits of expanded regional power trading -- What regional patterns of trade would emerge? -- Water resources management and hydropower development -- Who gains most from power trade? -- How will less hydropower development influence trade flows? -- What are the environmental impacts of trading power? -- Technology choices and the clean development mechanism -- How might climate change affect power investment patterns? -- Meeting the challenges of regional integration of infrastructure -- Building a political consensus -- Strengthening regional institutions -- Setting priorities for regional infrastructure -- Facilitating project preparation and cross-border finance -- Developing regional regulatory frameworks -- Investment requirements -- Modeling investment needs -- Estimating supply needs -- Overall cost requirements -- The sapp -- Constant access rates under trade expansion -- Regional target for access rate : electricity access of 35 percent on average -- National targets for electricity access -- The EAPP/Nile Basin -- Constant access rates under trade expansion -- Regional target for access rate : electricity access of 35 percent on average -- National targets for electricity access -- WAPP -- Constant access rates under trade expansion -- Regional target rate : electricity access of 54 percent on average -- National targets for electricity access -- CAPP -- Constant access rates under trade expansion -- Regional target for access rate : electricity access of 44 percent on average -- National targets for electricity access -- Strengthening sector reform and planning -- Power sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa -- Private management contracts : winning the battle, losing the war -- Sector reform, sector performance -- The search for effective hybrid markets -- Regulatory institutions may need to be redesigned -- The challenges of independent regulation -- Regulation by contract -- Outsourcing regulatory functions -- Toward better regulatory systems -- A model to fit the context -- Widening connectivity and reducing inequality -- Low electricity connection rates -- Mixed progress, despite many agencies and funds -- Inequitable access to electricity -- Affordability of electricity : subsidizing the well off -- Policy challenges for accelerating service expansion -- Don't forget the demand side of the equation -- Take a hard-headed look at affordability -- Target subsidies to promote service expansion -- Systematic planning needed for periurban and rural electrification -- Recommitting to the reform of state-owned enterprises -- Hidden costs in underperforming state-owned enterprises -- Driving down operational inefficiencies and hidden costs -- Effect of better governance on performance of state-owned utilities -- Making state-owned enterprises more effective -- Defined roles and responsibilities -- Altering the political economy around the utility -- Practical tools for improving the performance of state-owned utilities -- Closing Africa's power funding gap -- Existing spending in the power sector -- How much more can be done within the existing resource envelope? -- Increasing cost recovery -- On budget spending : raising capital budget execution -- Improving utility performance -- Savings from efficiency-oriented reforms -- Annual funding gap -- How much additional finance can be raised? -- Little scope for raising more domestic finance -- Official development assistance : sustaining the scale-up -- Non-OECD financiers will growth continue? -- Private investors : over the hill -- Local capital markets : a possibility in the medium term -- Bank lending -- Equity -- Corporate bonds -- The most promising ways to increase funds -- What else can be done? -- Taking more time -- Lowering costs through regional integration -- The way forward.

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