January 2026. WAPP mapping

Between 2018 and 2025, the West African Power Pool underwent a major transformation thanks to a strategy focused on increasing generation capacity, integrating renewable energy, and progressively interconnecting national grids. WAPP supported the commissioning of new hydroelectric (such as Souapiti in Guinea and Gouina in Mali), thermal, and solar power plants, bringing the region's installed capacity to over 30,000 MW by 2025. At the same time, the transmission network was significantly strengthened with the construction of over 5,000 km of high-voltage lines, including the key interconnections CLSG (Côte d'Ivoire–Liberia–Sierra Leone–Guinea), OMVG (Senegal–Gambia–Guinea-Bissau–Guinea), and the CEB–Nigeria–Niger–Burkina Faso northern backbone. These infrastructures have enabled increased cross-border trade, improved grid stability, and brought the region closer to the goal of a fully operational regional electricity market, thereby reducing production costs and strengthening energy security for Member States.

The current state of the WAPP (including Mauritania) electricity system is evolving rapidly, as evidenced by the mapping of transmission and generation capacities for the end of 2025. In total, more than 277 power plants have been identified (> 1 MW), 669 substations, and 51,000 km of transmission lines have been constructed and georeferenced. By the end of December 2025, the installed capacity across the entire region is estimated to reach 31.4 GW. The share of renewable energy is estimated at approximately 27%, as shown in the following table:

 

Type	Capacity (MW)	Share
Biomass	78	0%
Solar	1127	4%
Wind	325	1%
Hydro	7054	23%
Thermal (without Gas)	4266	14%
Gas	18542	59%
TOTAL WAPP	31392	100%
Renewable share	8584	27%

More than 7.4 GW of power generation is expected to be delivered in the short term over the next few years, bringing the area's capacity to over 38.8 GW. The map below shows the distribution of power plants, with a significant disparity in the distribution of technologies, depending on the area's potential.