Is Africa's Power Problem Really a Generation Problem?

Africa can add more megawatts. But if power cannot move reliably through the grid, industry cannot depend on it and investors cannot finance it at scale.Hosted by Energy News Network (ENN) in partnership with The Electricity Hub, Let's Talk Energy speaks with Sindhura Swaminathan, Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, in a conversation recorded around the Africa Energy Forum 2026 in Cape Town.Sindhura argues that the investment conversation needs to move beyond generation capacity towards the power system itself. Transmission constraints, curtailment, weak utility creditworthiness and uncertain offtake can undermine otherwise viable projects, making grid stability as much a financing challenge as a technical one.The conversation also looks at what a realistic pathway to industrialisation could require: renewables supported by battery storage and dispatchable generation, including gas, alongside stronger domestic grids and regional power pools.For Sindhura, the measure of progress is ultimately trust. By 2035, success may depend less on how much renewable capacity Africa has installed and more on whether it has built reliable, predictable power systems that investors are prepared to finance at scale.