Residential Solar Self-Generation and Pooled Storage: A Way Out of Crisis for Chad's Power System

1. Context and diagnosis of Chad's power sector

For more than a decade, Chad's power sector has suffered from a deep imbalance between growing urban demand — particularly in N'Djamena — and a limited, aging and costly supply. Generation remains overwhelmingly based on thermal plants running on diesel or heavy fuel oil (HFO), whose operating cost is directly exposed to hydrocarbon price volatility and exchange-rate fluctuations. This dependency results in frequent and unpredictable load shedding, which penalizes households, businesses and administrations and is a recognized drag on the capital's economic attractiveness. Losses on the distribution network — whether technical (aging transformers, undersized cable sections) or non-technical (fraud, illegal connections, billing defects) — make the situation worse.

On July 9, 2025, a presidential decree ended the delegated public-service operator status of the Société Nationale d'Électricité (SNE), created in 2011, and stripped it of the assets needed to carry out its mission. A new entity, Tchadienne d'Électricité (TchadElec), 100% owned by the Chadian state, was created to take over as the public electricity concessionaire. This decision follows more than a decade of financial crisis at SNE, marked by repeated public subsidies and several restructuring attempts with no lasting effect on service quality. Beyond a simple name change, the creation of TchadElec is an opportunity to fundamentally redefine the sector's operating, technical and tariff model — including the integration of new decentralized generation models.

The Chadian government and its partners have already launched several converging initiatives: the Project to Increase Access to Electrical Energy in Chad (PAAET), launched on an emergency basis in January 2025 and financed to the tune of 180 billion CFA francs by the World Bank, aims to equip twelve Chadian cities with solar mini-grids fitted with battery storage systems, with a target of connecting around 50,000 households. Regional interconnection commitments have also been announced: Cameroon has committed to supplying Chad with 100 MW from 2027, via the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam. Finally, Chad's solar potential is exceptional, with irradiation exceeding 5.5 kWh/m²/day across most of the territory, placing the country among the world's most favorable zones for photovoltaic development. The proposal examined in this note — residential PV self-generation combined with pooled storage managed by TchadElec — is therefore not a break with these directions but a natural extension of them, applied to the dense urban context of N'Djamena, where residential and commercial roofs represent a considerable and largely untapped PV surface area.

2. The proposed architecture: PV self-generation and pooled storage

The central idea is to separate the generation function from the storage function of electricity. Households and businesses equipped with PV panels generate electricity during the day, often in quantities exceeding their immediate consumption. Rather than requiring each household to install its own costly and technically demanding batteries, the surplus is fed into the low-voltage distribution grid and stored centrally by TchadElec at each neighborhood substation. In the evening, when solar generation drops to zero but residential demand peaks (lighting, air conditioning, appliances), the stored energy is fed back into the grid to cover all or part of this demand, reducing reliance on backup thermal units.

This pooling of storage offers a decisive economic advantage: the cost of lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries — one of the most expensive components of a standalone solar system — is shared among many users and managed by an operator with the technical maintenance skills required, rather than spread across many small individual installations that are more costly per stored kWh and harder to maintain over time.

The technical cornerstone of this model is the bidirectional smart meter, capable of separately measuring the energy fed by the household into the grid and the energy consumed from the grid. Without this equipment, no fair valuation of residential generation is possible. Its rollout should be treated as a structuring investment in its own right: it is also the basic tool for combating non-technical losses (fraud, illegal connections), an issue directly tied to TchadElec's financial recovery.

At each neighborhood substation, an Energy Management System (EMS) must arbitrate in real time between the aggregated PV output of connected households, the battery state of charge, the neighborhood's instantaneous demand, and the availability of the upstream national grid. This EMS prioritizes battery charging when solar generation exceeds local demand, manages gradual discharge at the end of the day to smooth the evening demand peak, and switches to the national grid or backup thermal units only when local capacity is insufficient — bridging the gap between the solar generation peak (11am-3pm) and the residential demand peak (7pm-9pm), the main challenge of integrating solar power into electricity grids worldwide.

3. Three models for valuing injected energy

The initial proposal envisages a mechanism in which TchadElec would "give back" to a household the energy it itself produced and stored, and resell the surplus to other consumers — an "individualized drawing right" under which each kilowatt-hour injected by a given household would remain, in some sense, attributed to it. Physically, however, electricity injected into a distribution grid mixes instantly with that of all other producers and with that coming from the national grid: there is no way to "tag" a kilowatt-hour so it can later be returned to its original producer. This fundamental physical constraint necessarily shapes the choice of economic and metering model.

Model 1 — the individualized drawing right. This model would aim for individual energy accounting for each producer household. It presents practically insurmountable difficulties: an extremely complex tracking system with no known large-scale equivalent; a charge/discharge efficiency for LFP batteries below 100% (typically 85-95%), with the question of who bears this loss becoming a potential source of disputes; and a considerable administrative and software burden for a TchadElec that must prioritize restoring its core functions.

Model 2 — the classic fixed feed-in tariff. Widely proven (Morocco, India, Germany, among others), TchadElec buys the energy injected by each household at a fixed price per kWh, regardless of its own consumption. Metering relies on a standard bidirectional meter, with no need for individual traceability of stored energy; storage losses are absorbed by TchadElec, which owns the batteries. Simple and predictable for both parties, this model does not, however, explicitly formalize storage pooling at the neighborhood level.

Model 3 (recommended) — fixed feed-in tariff + neighborhood-pooled storage. This hybrid model combines the contractual simplicity of the fixed feed-in tariff with explicit operational management of storage at each neighborhood substation, controlled by the EMS described in section 2. The producer household receives a feed-in tariff for its metered injection, as well as, where applicable, a bill credit reflecting its contribution to local grid stability. TchadElec manages storage as a centralized asset, allowing it to optimize sizing and operation at the neighborhood scale rather than household by household. This is the model recommended by this note, as it achieves the macroeconomic objective sought — more decentralized PV, pooled storage, and a form of redistribution to producer households — while remaining operationally feasible for a TchadElec undergoing institutional reconstruction.

4. Institutional, regulatory and economic order-of-magnitude dimensions

Implementing the proposed model requires a clear regulatory framework on several points: the right of an individual or business to install grid-connected PV generation (self-generation with injection), the technical conditions for connection (safety standards, anti-islanding protections), the legal status and level of the feed-in tariff, and the billing arrangements for the corresponding credit. This framework remains to be formalized in the Chadian context; the creation of TchadElec, which necessarily entails a revision of the texts governing the sector, is the right moment to build these provisions into the design of the new institutional framework from the outset.

Beyond technological considerations, the main risk factor is TchadElec's operational capacity, which inherits a situation where the previous operator already struggled to deliver its core missions. Adding the management of thousands of distributed injection points, the operation of a sophisticated EMS, and a new form of energy accounting represents a significant jump in operational complexity — which justifies a phased approach (section 6) and the choice of model 3, the simplest operationally.

On financing, a non-tapering, open-ended subsidy would create a budgetary dependency for the state, in a context where Chad's public finances are already under strain. A complementary alternative is to favor subsidized loans, repaid gradually from savings on electricity bills and feed-in tariff revenue ("on-bill financing"). A mixed model — a tapering subsidy limited to the program's first three years, combined with a subsidized-loan mechanism thereafter — reconciles rapid adoption with medium-term budgetary sustainability. PAAET (180bn FCFA, World Bank) is an immediate financing source and reference framework; for N'Djamena specifically, additional financing could be sought from other partners active in energy access in sub-Saharan Africa, from climate finance, or from African Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank instruments dedicated to renewable energy.

For a residential PV system of around 3 kWp — a typical size for an urban household in N'Djamena — the cost excluding storage falls in a range of 1.5 to 2 million FCFA, with modules representing about 40% of the cost, mounting structure and installation 20%, the inverter 15%, and the smart meter with connection around 20%. The international market puts the cost of LFP batteries, installed, at roughly 300 to 1,300 euros per usable kWh depending on system size. For an individual household seeking partial autonomy (~5 usable kWh), the cost sits toward the upper end of this range; a neighborhood storage substation sized for several hundred kWh benefits from economies of scale that can reduce the cost per household by around 50% or more — the central economic argument in favor of the proposed model.

This total of around 850 million FCFA for 200 households represents an order of magnitude of about 4.25 million FCFA per connected household. By comparison, PAAET, whose 180-billion-FCFA envelope covers about 50,000 households across twelve cities, represents an average of about 3.6 million FCFA per household — a consistent order of magnitude, with the difference explained by different sizing, technology and scope choices (mini-grids versus neighborhoods already connected to the urban grid). On the return-on-investment side, if the feed-in tariff is close to the retail electricity tariff, a producer household pays back its PV installation in 5 to 10 years; with an initial tapering subsidy of 30-50% over the first years, this can be reduced to 3-6 years, a markedly stronger adoption signal. These figures remain first-level orders of magnitude, to be confirmed by supplier quotes for the Chadian or sub-regional market.

5. Collaboration pathways for MEDASH

As a company based in N'Djamena active in economic and environmental studies, IT integration and the promotion of innovative projects, MEDASH SARL identifies four concrete collaboration pathways related to this dossier:

1. Tariff design and feasibility study. Conduct an economic study comparing the three valuation models presented in section 3 and costing a feed-in tariff that is sustainable for TchadElec and attractive for households, based on real supplier quotes for the Chadian market.
2. Support for smart meter and EMS integration. Support the rollout and software integration of bidirectional meters and the energy management system of the pilot neighborhood substation, drawing on MEDASH's IT integration expertise.
3. Diagnosis and rehabilitation plan for the pilot low-voltage grid. Carry out a technical and environmental diagnosis of the LV grid in one or more candidate neighborhoods — an essential prerequisite for any PV deployment per section 6.
4. Building a local ecosystem of solar integrators. Support the training of technicians and the networking of Chadian private actors — installation, maintenance, financing — to build a qualified local integrator base, a condition for the program's long-term sustainability.

6. Roadmap, opportunities and points of vigilance

Given the institutional capacity constraints discussed in section 4, implementation should follow a phased, three-stage trajectory. Phase 1 (0-12 months) involves selecting one or a few pilot neighborhoods in N'Djamena with favorable characteristics — an LV grid in reasonable or easily rehabilitated condition, a density of roofs suited to PV, and a mix of consumer profiles — and testing the entire technical chain while defining the tariff framework with the regulator. Phase 2 (12-30 months) extends the program to ten or fifteen additional neighborhoods, seeking synergies with PAAET and training TchadElec's teams, while setting up a subsidized-loan mechanism for households. Phase 3 (30-60 months) aims for replication in secondary cities, integration with upcoming regional interconnections (Cameroonian hydropower from 2027), and the emergence of a secondary energy market between households and businesses in the same neighborhood — coinciding with TchadElec's financial recovery and the stabilization of the regulatory framework for self-generation.

A program of this nature inherently generates a lasting need for technical services — energy audits, PV sizing and installation, connection, maintenance, training in safety standards — which is an opportunity for Chadian private players in engineering, electricity and information technology, complementing international suppliers. This dynamic also fits within a broader movement of solar projects in Chad — residential installations, PAAET mini-grids, industrial projects — creating cross-learning effects that benefit the entire national solar ecosystem.

This analysis would not be complete without an honest presentation of the risks. On the technical side, the model's benefit depends entirely on the low-voltage grid's ability to absorb bidirectional flows without voltage degradation or transformer overload — PV deployment not accompanied by prior rehabilitation could paradoxically worsen service-quality problems rather than solve them. On the financial side, a poorly calibrated feed-in tariff — too high, it creates a new financial burden for TchadElec; too low, it fails to trigger adoption — could jeopardize the entire program. On the institutional side, there is a risk that this new program diverts TchadElec's attention and resources from its core recovery priorities (generation reliability, loss reduction, bill collection); it must be designed as complementary to, not competing with, these priorities. On the social side, a residential PV self-generation program primarily benefits households with their own roof and some initial investment capacity; particular attention should be paid to ensuring that indirect benefits — reduced grid pressure, improved service quality for the neighborhood as a whole — also reach non-producer households.

The relevance of this model depends less on technological ambition — solar and battery storage are mature, well-understood technologies — than on the choice of economic valuation mechanism for injected energy and the implementation sequence. A simple model based on a fixed feed-in tariff and centralized, neighborhood-level storage management offers the best balance between ambition and operational feasibility for a TchadElec undergoing institutional reconstruction — and creates the conditions for a local ecosystem of skills and services around residential solar to emerge, supporting the economic diversification Chad is seeking.

Sources

• Financial Afrik, "Tchad : TchadElec remplace la société nationale d'électricité," July 2025.
• APAnews (African Press Agency), "Tchad : la SNE écartée, TchadElec voit le jour," July 2025.
• Sika Finance, "Tchad : Une nouvelle société publique d'électricité après des années de flou juridique," July 2025 — including information on PAAET and regional interconnection commitments with Cameroon (Nachtigal dam).
• APAnews (English edition), "Chad replaces dissolved SNE with TchadElec," July 2025.
• Economic order-of-magnitude figures: local reference from the M Solar residential project in Farcha (N'Djamena, ≈1.1M FCFA per installed kWp including batteries) and 2025-2026 international price ranges for PV modules and LFP batteries, drawn from specialized residential solar industry sources — to be confirmed by supplier quotes for the Chadian market.