Orange has signed a partnership with French international energy group Engie (formerly GDF Suez) to expand the rural electricity grid and optimise Engie's electricity supply to Orange equipment in Africa. The agreement between the two COP21 partners reasserts their willingness to apply their experience to achieve sustainable development in Africa.
Orange is present in 19 AME countries and Engie currently supplies 760 MW of power in Africa. Engie aims to become one of the continent’s energy leaders by 2025. The company has created a dedicated business unit with around a hundred employees and has several major projects in the pipeline.
The two groups will trial a range of domestic power supply solutions marketed for rural populations by Orange subsidiaries and billed via Orange Money. These could include individual solar kits and small local electricity networks. Orange intends to pursue its stable and secure power supply programme, to reduce its energy footprint and to contain costs despite rapid acceleration in energy demand.
An estimated 69 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population and 90 percent of those in rural areas had no access to a power grid, according to a 2014 report from BearingPoint.
