On Friday 17th December 2010, in Paris, Mr. Karim Wade, Minister of State, Senegal's Minister for International Cooperation, Air Transport, Infrastructures and Energy, and Mr. Henri Proglio, Chairman and CEO of EDF, signed a cooperation agreement between the State of Senegal and EDF.

The aim of this partnership agreement is to allow the Senegalese Government, currently facing a serious energy crisis, to: • gain an improved overview of the sector's short, medium and long term problems; • design an optimal contingency and restructuring plan for its electricity sector; • assist in the development and implementation of measures designed to increase generation and the energy efficiency ratio of the generation and transmission equipment owned by Senegal's electricity company SENELEC.

The two parties have also agreed on the need to conduct an immediate audit of SENELEC's existing generation fleet, to check the possibility of speeding up plant maintenance during shutdowns and of improving rated output where this falls below theoretical output and availability.

The State of Senegal, EDF and SENELEC will hence estimate the potential for the optimisation and expansion of capacity and availability of SENELEC's generation stock.

Finally, EDF is making a commitment to assist in improving SENELEC's commercial policy and on a general note EDF will contribute to launching training programmes to develop skills within the Société Sénégalaise d'Électricité.

In concluding this agreement, the Minister of State, Karim Wade, declared himself delighted to be able to count on EDF at this difficult time for his country's electricity sector.

He said that he was convinced that the expertise of a company like EDF, which is recognised for its professionalism, would be a determining factor in finding long-term solutions to Senegal's energy crisis.

Tags: EDF Group