[VIDEO] POWER Insights—Bringing Electricity to Underserved Areas

More than half of the population of Africa, or about 640 million people out of about 1.2 billion, does not have access to energy. It’s the lowest access rate for electricity worldwide.

Bringing power to those people is important work, being led by people such as Damien Simon,  marketing and strategy director for Paris, France-based Nexans, a company that develops energy projects around the globe. Simon’s focus is on building power infrastructure in Africa, and the electrification of areas previously without access to energy.

Simon recently joined POWER associate editor Darrell Proctor for a conversation as part of the POWER Insights series, video interviews with important players in the power generation sector. He noted that in Africa, “not only do the power generation assets need to be considered, but so do the necessary transmission and distribution networks and revenue collection processes,” because it’s important that the energy generated can be paid for. Simon talks about Nexans’ work in the Ivory Coast, among other areas, and discusses how his company has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.

“At Nexans, we have asked ourselves what we can do to help the remaining half of the African population turn on their lights by speeding up the electrification of Africa,” Simon said, noting that’s “a prerequisite for health and economic development.” Watch Simon’s interview, and also check out our other POWER Insights videos.

—Darrell Proctor is associate editor for POWER (@DarrellProctor1, @POWERmagazine).