Société Nationale d’Electricité du Burkina Faso, known as Sonabel, is the sole electricity supply utility. Sonabel's facilities are almost exclusively thermal and are located in the capital Ouagadougou and several other urban areas.
Overall generation capacity in Burkina Faso is believed to be 78 MW, with 70% of this supplied by thermal power stations. There is no national transmission network and the distribution network is limited. Only 7% of the country has access to electricity and electricity is expensive.
Growing demands for power have prompted Burkina Faso to seek to import electricity from neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire. A power line connecting the city of Ferkessedougou in northern Côte d'Ivoire with the Burkinabè capital, Ouagadougou, is expected to begin operations in 2005. Burkina Faso employs diesel generators to produce electricity, but high production costs prompted the government to begin interconnecting its grid with those of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire to import additional electricity requirements.
