Cost Estimates and Study of the Characteristics of the Discontinuity of Electricity Supply of Industries in Cameroon

This article treats the cost estimates and study of the characteristics of electricity supply interruptions in industries. The impact of the characteristics (duration, timing, warning time and frequency) on the cost of interruptions is put in evidence. The model described in this article uses data collected through a survey with questionnaire of a representative sample of industries and from previous statistical studies. The choice of the sample of industries was made thanks to a two degree sample survey method. The results obtained indicate that the average costs of interruptions are €1,050/h and of €815/h respectively for the scenarios without advance notice and with advance notice. The cost by interruption per industry is on average €6,300 for a supply interruption without advance notice and of €4,890 for a supply interruption with advance notice, thus a difference of 8.4%.The average cost varies from €2.58/kWh to €4.83/kWh lost for a 1-hour interruption and from €1.75/kWh to €3.75/kWh for a 4-hour outage. The trend of the interruptions’ costs shows a decrease after the first hour, they are not proportional to the frequency of the outages. The supply interruptions are more frequent at the peak periods (6 pm -11pm); we record an increase of 10% in the costs compared to the costs at normal periods. However, disparities of 5 to 15% were observed between the costs of interruptions in industries according to the equipment and the measurements which exist in order to mitigate the effect of outages. A mastery of the electricity supply interruption cost structure would make it possible for industries to be better prepared to face them and the company in charge of electricity called Applied Energy System- SONEL (AES-SONEL) could easily improve the performances of the electricity network.