US African power research and education activities: challenges, experiences and opportunities

US and Africa have been involved in collaborations leading to technology transfer from US to Africa in addressing some of the economic problems of the continent. The US-African power research and education exchange is born out of efforts put forward by both US and African power engineering academia and industry. It was initiated with funding in 1992 from National Science Foundation to implement the first international conference on power system operation and planning workshop in Lagos, Nigeria. The aim is to address voltage collapse problem in government-owned utilities in West Africa. Since then it had grown to cover wide geographical areas including Eastern, Central and Southern African countries. In addressing some of the challenging problems on the African continent, the biennial conference proposal was modified to embrace a research component between US and African power engineering academia. This opportunity was utilized recently when over 15 African power professors visited US for research collaboration activities in power systems.