From Data to Dignity: Aligning AI with the EAC’s Just Energy Transition Agenda by 2030

 

Source: Republic of Zambia. Ministry of Technology and Science (National AI Strategy, 2024-26)

Just before sunrise in Lira, northern Uganda, a rural health centre switches on its lights. Until recently, power cuts were routine, forcing midwives to rely on torches during night deliveries. Today, a solar mini-grid supported by AI-based demand forecasting ensures reliable electricity for lighting, refrigeration, and essential equipment. For Nurse Amina, energy access is no longer a daily uncertainty — it is the foundation of safe care and public confidence.

Her story reflects a broader challenge within the East African Community (EAC). Despite progress, energy access continues to lag behind population growth, particularly in rural and border areas. According to Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report (World Bank et al., 2024), Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for over 80% of the global electricity access gap, with several EAC Partner States still facing low access rates and heavy reliance on traditional biomass for cooking.

The EAC Vision 2050 and the EAC Regional Energy Security Policy Framework emphasise energy as a driver of regional integration, industrialisation, and shared prosperity. Artificial intelligence can help translate these regional ambitions into coordinated, people-centred action.

Regional Planning Beyond Borders

Energy demand in East Africa is shaped by cross-border trade, mobility, climate variability, and shared ecosystems. Traditional national planning tools struggle to capture these dynamics. AI enables regional planners to integrate satellite imagery, climate data, transport corridors, and settlement growth patterns across Partner States.

In Kenya, AI-supported geospatial tools have helped prioritise mini-grids in arid and semi-arid counties, many of which lie along regional trade and migration routes (Atlas AI, 2023). Scaling such tools through EAC institutions could support harmonised electrification planning, particularly for border regions where fragmented approaches increase costs and inequality.

Strengthening Regional Power Systems

The EAC promotes power pooling and interconnection to enhance energy security and affordability. AI can support this agenda by improving renewable forecasting, load balancing, and predictive maintenance across interconnected grids.

Kenya’s use of digital tools to optimise geothermal and solar integration (IEA, 2023), combined with Tanzania’s efforts to reduce system losses through smart grid technologies (World Bank, 2023), demonstrates how AI can strengthen national systems. At the regional level, shared AI-enabled platforms could improve coordination of cross-border power trade and resilience to climate shocks.

Decentralised Energy as a Regional Asset

For remote islands, hard-to-reach areas, pastoralist zones, and border communities, decentralised systems remain essential. AI-enabled mini-grids in Rwanda and Uganda adapt in real time to local demand, supporting productive uses such as agro-processing and cold storage (World Bank, 2023).

For the EAC, recognising decentralised energy as a strategic pillar of regional energy planning — rather than a temporary solution — would align national electrification efforts with regional inclusion goals.

Embedding Justice in the Transition

The EAC’s integration agenda is grounded in equity and shared development. AI can help identify energy-poor households, gendered energy burdens, and climate-vulnerable zones, enabling targeted subsidies, clean cooking programmes, and inclusive tariff reforms (UN Energy, 2024).

As the EAC advances toward 2030, the critical question is not whether AI has a role to play, but how it is governed, shared, and aligned with regional priorities. When AI supports coordinated planning, cross-border solidarity, and people-centred development, it becomes a catalyst for a just energy transition — one that truly serves East Africa’s citizens.

References

·         Atlas AI (2023). Using machine learning to map energy access and development needs in Africa.

·         IEA (2023). Africa Energy Outlook.

·         UN Energy (2024). SDG 7 Progress and Policy Insights.

·         World Bank (2023). Mini-grids for Half a Billion People.

·         World Bank; IEA; IRENA; WHO; UNSD (2024). Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report.


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