SUDAN’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

**Table 13. Benchmarking power indicators in Sudan**

|Indicators|Units|Sudan|Low-income,<br>nonfragile<br>countries|Middle-<br>income<br>countries|Resource-<br>rich<br>countries|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Access to electricity (national)|% of population|36.5|33|50|46|
|Access to electricity (urban)|% of population|52|86|72.8|79.4|
|Access to electricity (rural)|% of population|28|12.7|26.3|28|
|Installed generation capacity|MW|2,712|651|36,971|4,105|
|Installed generation capacity per<br>million population|MW per million population|80|20|799|43|
|Power outages|Days/year||10.4|5.9|14.5|
|Firms that find power a constraint for<br>business|% of firms||52|31|56|
|Firms with own generator|% of firms|41|41|18|63|
|Collection rate|% billing|100|92|91|70|
|Revenue per unit|US cents/ kWh|9|14|13|13|
|System losses|% of generation|22|24|20|52|
|Effective power tariff||Sudan|Predominantly|hydro|Other<br>countries|
|Residential at 100 kWh|US cents/kWh|0.09||10.27||
|Commercial at 100 kWh|US cents/kWh|||11.73|5.0–10.0|
|Industrial at 50,000 kWh|US cents/kWh|||11.39||
|Average effective tariff|US cents/kWh|9|8|15|12.6|

_Source:_ All data unless specified are for 2005 and based on AICD calculations; data for access to electricity for Sudan are from 2009 and were obtained from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA); data for South Sudan access to electricity are from 2010 and were obtained from World Bank (2011); data for installed capacity for Sudan are from 2009 and were obtained from Platts (2009); data for power outages ere derived from Vennemo and Rosnes (2009); data for Emergency Generation from Eberhard and others (2008); data for firms that find power to be a constraint and firms with own generators are from 2007 and were obtained from World Bank (2009b); data on Sudan collection rate, revenue per unit, and system losses are for 2004 and were taken from World Bank (2007); data for average effective tariff for Sudan are for 2004 and taken from World Bank (2007); data for average effective tariff for South Sudan are taken from World Bank (2011). For the thermal benchmark, data represent primarily residential users.

_Note:_ Access to electricity data for Sudan are estimates based on calculations from the AICD economic model for power investment needs. Installed capacity per million population was calculated based on Platts (2009) estimates for installed capacity. * The aggregate is based on manufacturing firms.

Excessive reliance on generators to cope with erratic and unreliable power supply increases production costs and reduces competitiveness. A significant share of manufacturing enterprises (from 36 percent in North Kordofan to 96 percent in Red Sea) share or own generators. The share of electricity consumption produced by generators in these states was 66 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Apart from increasing costs and reducing competitiveness, investment in these generators also holds up a significant amount of resources that could have been used for other fixed assets or to lower working capital constraints of most of the businesses (World Bank 2009b). Given erratic supply and high reliance on backup generators, industrial and commercial consumers account for only around 30 percent of electric utility consumption (figure 19). Consumption of power for agricultural uses is around 5 percent, and the rest of the consumption is primarily by domestic consumers. In contrast, billing patterns (as a proxy for consumption) in South Africa suggest that industrial and commercial consumers account for 92 percent of all billings, and residential consumers for only 8 percent.

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