Despite increased electricity production, Cameroon’s power outage persist

Nearly a month after blackouts worsened across Cameroon's Southern Interconnected Grid, seven of the country's ten regions continue to experience electricity outages.

Planned power cuts in Yaoundé often last several days, leaving many neighborhoods without power.

Power utility Eneo has attributed the outages to issues on the transmission network managed by Sonatrel, citing maintenance work, fallen poles, broken cables, and fires at overloaded transformers.

The newly built Nyom substation, crucial for transmitting power from the Nachtigal dam, has experienced almost daily incidents.

The Nachtigal hydropower dam, connected to the national grid since 2024, reached full capacity on March 18, 2025, injecting 420 MW into the grid. However, the distribution network remains unreliable, and many parts of the country continue to experience power cuts.

Sources suggest that some power lines needed to deliver electricity from the Nachtigal project are incomplete, making it difficult to utilize the dam's full capacity. Growing industrial demand has also increased the need for electricity.

Under the agreement between the Cameroonian government and NHPC, the government must pay CFA10 billion monthly as soon as the dam becomes fully operational, regardless of energy consumption.

Despite the dam increasing Cameroon's electricity production capacity by 30%, daily outages persist.

BY A CORRESPONDENT

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