Uninterruptible Power Supply Monopoly in Benin

Benin is reliant on electricity imports for a significant share of its energy supply. Reform programmes, including plans for electrification, have been put in place in the country, where only 30% of the population had access to electricity in 2017.

Fig. 8 shows that Benin is an energy importer, and very vulnerable in terms of its electricity supplies. Since 1990, between 75% and 99% of its electricity supply was imported, and imports grew sharply from 2007 to 2013, given exponential demand and little national production.

Meanwhile, only 4.8 million of inhabitants had access to electricity in 2017. Analyses of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), show that Benin is the largest consumer of oil products (26.6%), and an electricity importer (25.6%), despite being home to only 9% of the total WAEMU population (more than 123 million inhabitants) in 2018.

Benin's electricity consumption rates are less than Senegal's (222 kWh/inhabitant), Ghana's (319 kWh/inhabitant), and Nigeria's (115 kWh/inhabitant) electricity consumption rates, which have higher industrialization rates than Benin .

Electricity production using biomass in Benin was zero, similar to other WAEMU member countries, except for the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, which accounted for 53.4% and 46.6% of all electricity production (114.5 GWh), using biomass in 2018, respectively.

In 2015, Benin was energy and electrically dependent at 41.3% and 76%, respectively, which worsened given energy imports at 1319.45 GWh in 2018 relative to 1202.15 GWh in 2017, an 8.07% increase due to a 76.80% drop in national electricity production in this period.