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OMVG Study Tour to South Africa

29 October 2019

OMVG Study Tour to South AfricaA study tour took place to South Africa in the first week of September 2019, for the Gambian River Basin Development Organisation (OMVG). The OMVG project includes the construction of a 1 600 km long, 225kV transmission line which traverses four countries. This project will facilitate the electricity trade between the four countries and also connect them to the West African Power Pool (WAPP). This inter-connection project is funded by the World Bank and several other donors.

 

A key principle of the OMVG interconnection project was to ensure that sustainable and long term management plan for the environmental impact of the project, was implemented. To draw lessons from a current success story in the management of environmental impact of overhead line infrastructure projects, a study tour was arranged for the OMVG team to explore the partnership that has been created between ESKOM and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), in South Africa. The objectives of the tour were to gain lessons learned from the following;

 

  • Ecological compensation practices for forestry/ woodland loss, and the impacts to species of conservational concern
  • Avoidance of bird / mammal collisions and electrocutions on such infrastructure
  • Structuring partnerships with conservation organisations for long term sustainability

 

10 delegates from the OMVG and World Bank partnership attended the week-long tour in the company of Eskom and EWT representatives. Warren Funston , an environmental specialist in Eskom, and also an approved expert in the C3 Study Committee, guided the team during this study tour. In addition to the information sharing, several site visits were undertaken during the week.

 

The OMVG touring party was also exposed to the intent of the Cigre-World Bank Africa Work Group, to further expand and share the institutional CIGRE knowledge in Africa. Specific interest in Overhead Line Design, System Operations, and Market and Regulatory practices were viewed as potential areas for further engagement between CIGRE and the OMVG team.

 

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