In terms of economic development, internal availability of energy in a region means the capability to produce essential goods and services for the improvement in the quality of life of all the economic agents. Economic development consists in large part of harnessing increasing amounts of energy for productive purposes or by making more efficient use of available energy resources. In this dissertation, the future electricity supply and demand interactions are examined for seven countries in West Africa: Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, and Upper Volta. A description of the primary energy resources (coal, hydro, natural gas, and oil) available in each country is presented. The future demands for electricity in the medium term (1980-1989) are projected through econometric models developed in the study. Two sectorial models for each country's economy, the residential sector, and the commercial and industrial sector, are presented. Multiple regression analysis is applied in the estimation of all demand equations. Major determinants for electricity demand used in the estimation for the residential sector were average price of electricity, real personal income, and the number of households with access to electricity. Data on these variables were obtained from international organisations such as the United Nations and from government publications for the period 1960-1977. Each of these determinants was found to be significant for most countries; however, their relative importance differ across countries. Similarly, average price of electricity, real output, and employment were major determinants used and found to be significant in the demand for electricity in the commercial and industrial sector of all countries. Price and income elasticities were obtained from the estimated equations. A general multi-region supply model was developed to structure the future electricity supply possibilities in the countries involved. The objective of this model, using linear programming, was to seek the least-cost combination of resources (primary energy, capital, and technology) for the production of electricity. The impacts of various levels of resource availability on average cost of electricity were examined for each country, and for joint development efforts using a non-integer, deterministic, linear version of the general model. The application of the supply and demand models to West Africa over the decade to 1989 reveals that except for Nigeria, all countries in the region will require fossil fueled systems to supply additional demands for electricity, because all hydro resources would have to be exploited by the mid-1980s. This will lead to higher costs in producing electricity. However, Nigeria is expected to have excess electrical energy if plans initiated in its third development plan are completed. The extension of transmission lines between Nigeria and Benin could effectively distribute the relatively cheaper energy from Nigeria to other countries, since adequate transmission network already exists between most of the countries.