Africa’s digital transformation is advancing at a remarkable pace. Across the continent, mobile adoption, cloud services, and digital platforms are expanding rapidly. Yet the foundation for all this promise is energy. Reliable and resilient power is not a side issue. It is central to whether Africa’s digital future will thrive or falter. 

Connectivity alone is no longer enough. Emerging technologies, from data centres and 5G networks to edge computing, IoT devices, and advanced cloud services, are placing unprecedented demands on national power grids. Understanding how Africa can sustain this technological growth requires a clear view of energy supply, grid resilience, system planning, and the economic opportunity and risk tied to electricity. 

In this #TechTalkThursday article, we look at what it will take for Africa’s power systems to keep pace with digital demand, why grid resilience is becoming a strategic imperative, and how smarter, adaptive energy solutions can support the continent’s digital ambitions. 

The Emerging Technology Stack Driving Power Demand

The digital ecosystem is diversifying and intensifying energy demand across sectors. Data centres and cloud infrastructure form the backbone for digital services, requiring continuous, high-density power for servers and cooling systems. 

Across Africa, electricity demand from data centres is growing at roughly 20 to 25 percent annually, with projections suggesting consumption could reach 8,000 gigawatt-hours as networks mature. Mobile networks and the rollout of 5G introduce additional pressure. Because 5G offers faster speeds and higher device density, operators must increase both tower density and energy use compared with earlier generations.

Edge computing and content delivery further shift power requirements closer to users, reducing latency and backhaul strain but demanding reliable local energy sources. The expansion of IoT and smart infrastructure embeds connectivity into industries, agriculture, and urban systems, adding incremental load and raising expectations for uninterrupted service. 

Collectively, these developments create systemic pressure that stretches across networks, endpoints, and infrastructure.

Why These Technologies Stress Grids Differently

Emerging technologies are not simply higher loads; they have distinct characteristics that stress grids in new ways. 

Continuous, high-density operation is essential for data centres and critical mobile network nodes, leaving little tolerance for downtime. Fluctuations in voltage or supply interruptions can degrade performance, damage hardware, and undermine service quality. Furthermore, much of Africa’s digital infrastructure is geographically concentrated in urban and industrial hubs, areas that already experience peak stress on power systems.  

“AI workloads have completely different needs in that data center space. You cannot use traditional data center space for AI workloads. This is a completely new concept with much higher power densities per rack, which has to be scalable and future ready. This presents a completely new challenge on the market, how to adopt current workloads to be ready for AI.” 

-Wojtek Piorko, Managing Director for Africa, Vertiv. 

These patterns expose the rigidities of existing grids and their limited capacity to accommodate rapid demand increases without coordinated upgrades. 

“What Africa needs is hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment, particularly in energy, because digital infrastructure cannot function without reliable power… If we can attract this capital and address the continent’s energy deficits, Africa’s GDP could experience tremendous growth.” 

– Ralph Mupita, President and CEO, MTN Group

Africa’s Power Infrastructure Reality

Reliable electricity access remains a challenge across the continent. Approximately 600 million Africans  still lack access to electricity. Grid reliability varies widely between countries and regions. Nigeria’s national grid, for example, often delivers only a few hours of electricity per day, forcing data centre operators to rely heavily on diesel generators to sustain operations. 

Transmission and distribution infrastructure in many markets is inadequate for the concentrated and critical demands of digital infrastructure. Estimates suggest that hundreds of billions of dollars in investment may be required by mid-century to meet both baseline and emerging digital load.

Many grids were designed for traditional consumption patterns, not the density and criticality of digital technology, leaving planners to contend with both structural gaps and emerging pressures.

The Role of Smart and Adaptive Energy Systems

Addressing energy challenges while enabling technology growth calls for a different approach to grid design:

• Smarter grid management and automation allows utilities to monitor and respond to changes in load in real time, improving efficiency and reducing outages.

• Distributed energy resources and microgrids provide localised resilience where centralized grids are weak or absent. These systems can isolate faults and maintain service continuity for critical nodes such as data centres or network hubs.

• Renewable energy integration with storage leverages Africa’s abundant energy resources, particularly solar, to create cleaner and more reliable supply options that complement traditional generation.

These solutions do not replace existing infrastructure overnight. They evolve power systems into more adaptable platforms able to absorb demand growth and technological load diversity.

Efficiency as a Strategic Enabler

Beyond resilience, energy efficiency is an underused lever to reduce stress on grids. Energy-efficient networks and data centres employ advanced cooling, power management software, and system design to lower electricity consumption. Edge processing brings computation closer to the point of use, reducing overall network energy requirements. 

Most importantly, technology deployments must be designed with energy constraints in mind, treating electricity supply not as an afterthought but as a strategic component of digital infrastructure planning. Such measures enhance sustainability, reduce operational costs, and strengthen system reliability.   

“One element that is very important for the continent is energy, and all our products are really focused on reducing energy consumption, or as we call it in Ericsson, breaking the energy curve. And there we are leveraging on technologies like AI to reduce the consumption and make it more, I mean, more from an economic perspective, but also from a sustainability perspective.” 

-Majda Lahlou-Kassi, Vice President and Head of Customer Unit West and Southern Africa, Ericsson.  

Planning for Convergence, Not Silos

The most critical shift lies in planning and coordination. Digital and energy infrastructure must be conceived together rather than in isolated silos. Governments, regulators, and industry stakeholders must align policy, investment, and execution to ensure technology can grow without overwhelming power systems. Coordination failure poses a greater risk than the failure of any single technology. By integrating energy resilience into the digital agenda, Africa can pursue rapid technological adoption while safeguarding long-term sustainability.

Conclusion: Building a Grid That Supports Africa’s Digital Ambitions

Energy reliability does not slow the emergence of new technologies. Data centres, cloud platforms, AI systems, and digital services will continue to expand. What unreliable power does instead is quietly tax access. It drives up operating costs, forces networks to rely on diesel and backup systems, and pushes those costs downstream to users. 

This makes electricity a decisive factor in digital affordability. Countries with broader and more stable electricity access consistently record lower data prices, while regions with weak or inconsistent power supply face higher costs. Today, affordability is the largest barrier to digital inclusion. 

“We talked about energy being one of the biggest drivers of costs that affect affordability, not only from the demand side but also from the supply side. Countries with wider access to electricity for their populations tend to have much lower and more affordable data prices. In contrast, countries without reliable electricity see their citizens paying a premium for data. On the demand side, it is the same: increasing smartphone availability depends on electricity, because households need power to make these devices usable. This is why partnerships and collaborations, such as with Mission 300 , present opportunities for African governments to electrify 300 million more people and expand access to electricity, a step that also supports digital inclusion.”

– Angela Wamola, Head of Africa, GSMA 

“One area in Africa that receives less attention in the industry is energy. Our research confirms that energy is critical, forming a key part of the cost structure for services and significantly influencing the final pricing for consumers. Addressing these energy challenges is therefore essential to closing the digital usage gap.”

– Caroline Mbugua, Senior Director for Public Policy and Communications, GSMA

Until energy systems are addressed as a core digital policy issue, millions will remain connected in theory but priced out in practice.