The Senegalese national electricity supplier has awarded VINCI Energies a huge network and infrastructure rollout project. Its objective: electricity for all by 2026.
With an electrification rate of almost 87%, Senegal is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s best-equipped countries in terms of energy infrastructure, according to World Bank figures. But there are major disparities in energy coverage across the country: between regions, between urban and rural areas, and between population groups.
In response, the Senegalese authorities have launched an ambitious strategy to roll out new networks and consolidate existing infrastructure with the aim of universal access to electricity by 2026.
As part of this initiative, in 2018, the Senegalese national electricity company (Senelec) awarded VINCI Energies an initial €197 million contract covering the creation of five high-voltage and extra-high-voltage substations, 200 km of extra-high-voltage power lines, around a hundred other substations, distribution lines in various localities, and a regional electricity distribution system.
Twenty concurrent construction projects
“We delivered this project in a record time of three years – an incredible feat given its scope in terms of finance and technical complexity,” explains Wassel Bouaouda, Director of Infrastructure Morocco & Major International Projects at VINCI Energies West Africa.
“A cross-border exercise in collaboration and improving skills for all our teams”
Then in 2023, with support from Bpifrance, Senelec awarded VINCI Energies a second contract worth €200 million. The brief for this project was to install 1,350 km of overhead and underground electrical distribution lines and eight high/extra-high-voltage transformer stations. Improvements to the remote management network are also planned.
“This type of programme is normally scheduled over six or seven years, not counting the time required to arrange the necessary finance,” says Wassel Bouaouda. “We were commissioned for the study phase, design and turnkey construction of some twenty projects (civil engineering, equipment assembly and electrical connections) at once, with a target of completing the project by December 2026.”
A thousand-strong workforce
To design and execute projects on this scale requires meticulous organisation. Three VINCI Energies entities – in Morocco, from where the project was managed, in Senegal and in Paris – have joined forces in a consortium.
At its operational peak in late 2024, the project will mobilise a workforce of around 1,000 people. Local teams will benefit from training and knowledge transfer, with support from French and Moroccan VINCI Energies business units.
“Training modules have been specially designed to pass on our design and execution know-how to local engineers and on-site operators,” says Wassel Bouaouda. “This really is a cross-border exercise in collaboration and improving skills for all our teams.”
07/10/2024
