A landmark program to link all rural areas to the national grid is nearing completion, capping a ten-year plan to modernize the country

YOUNES MAAMAR CEO of the National Electricity Office

ome 90 percent of the country’s villagers enjoy electricity in their homes, up from 18 percent a decade ago. The National Electricity Office (ONE) is working with foreign energy firms to guarantee supply as demand for power grows at a clip of 8 percent per year.

“We have a strong increase in the electricity demand, we have a mature market at the operational level and we have introduced private operators,” says Younes Maamar, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Electricity Office.

Mr. Maamar says Morocco’s rural electrification program has granted access to 12 million people since 1997. Deciding who got connected first was tricky. Therefore leaders began by making an exhaustive list of all the villages in the country.

The National Electricity Office is working with foreign energy firms to secure supply.

“We considered the number of households in a village and the distance to our network,” Mr. Maamar says. “A third factor was the connection cost per household.”

If connections cost less than $1,200, households in those villages were linked first. Later, those which cost up to $3,000 per household were connected. Around 40,000 homes with connections exceeding this amount are using solar energy, according to the CEO.

Morocco has funded the electrification program through a combination of politics and creative financing. According to Mr. Maamar, the National Electricity Office kicked in 55 percent, local authorities gave 20 percent and private consumers provided 25 percent.