From strategy to delivery: CEPA marks a turning point for Africa’s continental energy integration

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Five days in Addis Ababa - the first Consultation and Validation Workshop and the inaugural Steering Committee of the Continental Energy Programme in Africa (CEPA) - set the foundations for the next phase of European Union (EU) - African Union (AU) cooperation under the Global Gateway.

In early June 2026, around 60 representatives from some 35 African Union, regional and national institutions gathered at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa for five days of intensive technical work. From 3 to 5 June, the African Union Commission and AUDA-NEPAD co-convened the first CEPA Consultation and Validation Workshop, bringing together the Power Pools, regional regulators, AFREC, the AfDB, UNECA, the Regional Centres for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, the Regional Economic Communities, AU Member State representatives and partners from across Team Europe. On 5 June, the week closed with the inaugural meeting of CEPA’s Steering Committee, chaired by the European Union Delegation to the African Union.

Taken together, the two events signalled a clear inflection point. The years from 2015 to 2025 were dedicated to designing the continental strategies; from 2025 onwards, EU–AU energy cooperation has entered a transition phase, moving from documents to delivery, and from continental frameworks to regional and national implementation. As one EU representative put it in closing, the programme has moved “from strategic documents down to very concrete elements that are the architecture and the foundations of what we are trying to do together.”

Concrete deliverables, collectively endorsed

Over the three workshop days, participants reviewed, discussed and validated a substantial package of technical and operational outputs developed under CEPA, the building blocks for operationalising the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) and the Continental Power System Master Plan (CMP). 

Validation is, in practice, the mechanism through which technical work becomes a shared continental mandate. Each deliverable was peer-reviewed by the institutions that will use it, converting CEPA outputs into instruments that are, in a real sense, owned by the African Union rather than by any single programme or partner.

Three workstreams, one integrated programme

AfSEM — building the market architecture

Led by the African Union Commission’s Department of Infrastructure and Energy, the AfSEM workstream validated the ToR for the AfSEM Working Groups together with common methodologies for tariffs and regional market rules. Looking ahead, a training on ancillary-services markets for the African Forum for Utility Regulators (AFUR) is scheduled for July, and CEPA will continue to support market-coupling work between the Southern African Power Pool and the Eastern Africa Power Pool.

CMP — first pre-feasibility studies turning into investment

Under AUDA-NEPAD’s leadership, the CMP workstream has agreed up to twenty priority transmission-interconnection projects with the regional Power Pools for pre-feasibility studies. The first two - the Burundi–Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo–Angola interconnectors - were validated during the workshop. Notably, one of these pre-feasibility studies has already secured follow-on funding from the African Development Bank to progress to the feasibility-study stage - an early, concrete example of how technical assistance can unlock investment. Four further pre-feasibility studies (Egypt–Libya, Rwanda–Tanzania, Angola–Zambia, Botswana–Namibia) are in drafting, and regional master-plan updates by the Power Pools are progressing in parallel.

AfEES — national strategies and continental targets

Working with the African Energy Commission (AFREC), CEPA’s AfEES workstream has finalised National Energy Efficiency Strategies and Action Plans for Madagascar, Senegal and Zimbabwe, with Burundi advancing despite the data and electrification challenges inherent in any country where access remains low and biomass dependence high. Energy Performance for Buildings guidelines are being completed for the same pilot countries, a strategically important agenda given that more than half of all new buildings constructed worldwide in the coming decades will be built in Africa. AFREC is also progressing the African Energy Efficiency Alliance and an emerging African Energy Efficiency Facility, designed to mobilise capital for energy-efficiency investments at scale.

Horizontal activities — hydrogen, bioenergy and island states

Cross-cutting deliverables on hydrogen and on the integration of African Island States into the continental energy framework were also validated, reflecting CEPA’s role in connecting workstreams that, until recently, advanced in parallel rather than in dialogue.

Governance taking shape: the first Steering Committee

Held on the final day, CEPA’s inaugural Steering Committee was chaired by the EU Delegation to the African Union, with the African Union Commission, AUDA-NEPAD and AFREC co-chairing the three component workstreams. The Africa–EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) participated as an observer.

Terms of Reference for the Steering Committee will be finalised in the coming weeks, with the partners agreeing on a deliberately lean approach, focused on strategic alignment, portfolio governance, change control and escalation, rather than micromanagement of individual deliverables. The Committee will meet at least annually, with the possibility of additional dedicated sessions to engage development finance institutions and the private sector, a recognition that moving from pre-feasibility to financing requires bringing the banks into the conversation early.

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Team Europe in practice

CEPA is one of the EU’s primary technical-assistance vehicles under the Africa–EU Green Energy Initiative (AEGEI), the energy flagship of the Global Gateway Africa–Europe Investment Package. The Addis Ababa week showcased Team Europe in action: CEPA working hand in hand with ENGAGE, Germany’s “Accelerating the Energy Transition in Africa” programme funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); with the Africa–EU Energy Partnership (AEEP), whose Secretariat will play a coordinating role in joint visibility going forward; and with the wider community of EU Member State bilateral programmes and European development finance institutions.

The early success of the African Development Bank picking up a CEPA pre-feasibility study to take it to the next stage points to where the partnership is heading: a continental technical assistance platform that prepares investments rather than producing studies for their own sake.

Four lessons emerging at this turning point

• Deep institutional cooperation works. CEPA brings AUC, AUDA-NEPAD and AFREC into a single integrated programme rather than three parallel ones. Five days under one roof and one chairmanship made that integration visible.
• Validation drives ownership and unlocks finance. Each validated deliverable is now an AU instrument with continental endorsement; the AfDB follow-on funding is a tangible early result of that legitimacy.
• Team Europe coordination matters at delivery stage. The richer the continental pipeline becomes, the more important it is to align EU instruments, Member State programmes and European DFIs - CEPA, ENGAGE and AEEP are designing that coordination architecture in real time.
• Technical work needs translation. Pre-feasibility studies, tariff methodologies and grid codes carry the continent forward but they do not, on their own, communicate. Short public-facing summaries of key deliverables, audiovisual testimonials with the AUC and EU Commissioners and the AUDA-NEPAD CEO, and a dedicated CEPA landing page on the EU Delegation’s website are all in preparation, in coordination with AEEP.

One grid, one market, one vision

The framing endorsed by African institutions at the workshop - one grid, one market, one vision - captures the simple, powerful idea behind AfSEM and the CMP: a continent of one billion people, with the world’s largest renewable potential, served by an integrated, climate-resilient and investment-ready electricity system. The strategies are agreed; the institutions are aligned; the tools are increasingly on the table. The next chapter is delivery and the European Union, alongside its African Union partners and Team Europe colleagues, will continue to walk that road together.