Advantages of distributed energy storage in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The main priority for the Democratic Republic of Congo's power sector is to increase access to electricity. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a large country with 10 million households of which 1.6 million have access to electricity. This makes it the third largest population in the world without access to electricity.

The Congo River has the potential to bring up to 100,000 MW of hydropower capacity to the DRC, representing approximately 6% of the global energy potential and 37% of Africa's overall potential.

Wind Meanwhile, potential for wind energy in the DRC is also significant and largely untapped. Offering a potential of 15 GW, with wind speeds averaging 6-6.6m/s throughout the country, there are a number of high potential areas where wind power could be leveraged across the country.

To better understand present and future electricity demand in the DRC, a concerted effort by public agencies and donors, under the leadership of the Ministry of Energy and Hydraulic Resources to collect better data will be needed, as will a flexible approach to quickly factor evolving demand growth.

Despite the DRC's immense endowment of varied renewable energy potential which includes hydroelectric, biomass, solar, wind and geothermal power, the current installed generating capacity is approximately 2,844 MW, providing access to merely 19% of its nearly 85 million-strong population.

This makes it the third largest population in the world without access to electricity. If electrification efforts follow the same pace as during the last decade, 84 million people – or 80% of total population – will still live without electricity in the DRC by 2030.