Georgia Power announced today a partnership with the National Electric Power Authority of Nigeria (NEPA). The two-year partnership is designed to assist the Nigerian utility with the growing electricity demands in Africa’s most populous country. NEPA plans to apply the lessons learned from Georgia Power to make its power supply more reliable.

The partnership will involve exchange visits between executives of Georgia Power and NEPA, taking place in both Georgia and Nigeria. This partnership compliments the sister city partnership previously established between Atlanta and Lagos, Nigeria.

Georgia Power officials will volunteer their time and expertise in various areas of the business including transmission and distribution, accounting, the establishment of a control center, communications and information technology.

“We are honored to be a part of this agreement with NEPA. We have long prided ourselves on providing reliable electricity and outstanding service to our customers and are looking forward to sharing that expertise with our new friends in hopes that by sharing best practices between us, we will be able to provide even better service,” said Georgia Power’s President and CEO David Ratcliffe.

This partnership was recognized today at an official signing ceremony at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE/PES) Transmission and Distribution Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center. The partnership was arranged through the United States Energy Association (USEA) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – the foreign assistance arm of the U.S. Government.

The USEA is the U.S. Member Committee of the World Energy Council. It is an association of public and private energy-related organizations, corporations, and government agencies. USEA established the Energy Partnership Program to develop electric utility and regulatory partnerships between developing country utilities and regulatory agencies and their U.S. counterparts. The program assists developing country utilities and regulatory agencies to implement institutional strengthening policies, promote best practices in utility operations, and encourage private participation in the energy sector by establishing long-term cooperative relationships between the partnership participants.

The National Electric Power Authority is a power company owned by the Nigerian federal government, and is the principal supplier of electricity to Nigeria, a country of around 90 million inhabitants in West Africa.