Two practical ways Cameroon can improve its electricity network and cut losses

Cameroon’s electricity sector has an opportunity to tackle two practical problems at once: deciding where network investment is most needed and identifying where injected power disappears. The proposed methods rely on information that public institutions and operators are already developing.

The first proposal would create electricity profiles for each load area. These areas would group related substations, medium-voltage feeders and consumers. Each profile would show equipment loading, incidents, outages, losses and connection requests, while also recording territorial changes such as new neighborhoods, industrial zones and major public facilities.

That information could help identify constraints before they become emergencies. A substation operating at 85% capacity in an area expecting several thousand homes would require a different decision from one carrying the same load in a place where consumption is barely changing. A line serving a hospital or major industrial zone would also need to be assessed by the importance of its users, not simply by its age.

The proposed investment priorities would consider saturation, interruption frequency, expected demand, construction costs and the importance of the uses being served. The result would be a rolling three-to-five-year program, reviewed annually. Each project would have a short profile describing the problem, proposed investment, cost and expected network benefit.

The second proposal would track electricity feeder by feeder, from the power injected into the network to what reaches users. The approach is presented as a way to measure losses at a scale where they can be corrected. It comes as Nachtigal contributes 420 megawatts, about 30% of national production, while the Ministry of Water and Energy develops a geographic information system for electricity and water infrastructure. The energy compact also sets modernization and loss-reduction targets, and changes to ENEO’s public structure and the creation of SOCADEL are reshaping distribution.