Rural Energy Strategy and Master Plan

BC: Building capacity: The BC Program is transversal to all the other four and supports the implementation and impact of all the other programs. The total estimated investment of the BC Program is USD 52M.

Building Capacity Program is composed of 6 main initiatives:

BC.1 – Public sector scale up initiative. This initiative intends to strengthen the internal capacity of key public sector entities dedicated to rural energy. RREA will have a key role and its organizational structure and competencies need to be adjusted to the challenges of the Master Plan and a training and capacity building plan needs to be designed. The initiative includes funding for the creation of several new units inside RREA, MLME and LERC for the management of the Rural Energy Master Plan Programs and initiatives. Additionally, the initiative includes also the creation of a Rural Energy Management Information System (MIS) which will support monitoring and reporting of the progress of the Master Plan.

BC.2 – Owners engineering and procurement initiative. This initiative intends to bring external qualified support to the deployment of the key projects and investments led by the public sector with grant or concessional loan funding. “Owners engineering” contracts are to be celebrated for most of the investments to be deployed including design of technical specifications, management of procurement process and supervision of construction. This initiative also includes the support to setup and manage the renewable IPP procurement program and the “affermage” contracts to be celebrated for management of distribution activities in Decentralized Grids – with deficit expected mostly in phase 1.

BC.3 – Sector reorganization initiative. This initiative intends to support the creation of the new institutional framework. It includes creation of laws and regulations, the support and operational budget for the Rural Services Unit(s), all activities regarding the setup of the Regional Distribution Companies and the restructuring of LEC to separate the Distribution activities from the Transmission and Power sourcing.

BC.4 – Rural Energy Training and accreditation Centers initiative. This initiative intends to create four Rural Energy Training and Accreditation Centers for Rural Energy, one in each of the country’s regions, who will train and/or accredit electricians, mechanics and other technicians required for the operation of the future rural energy infra-structure. The Centers will be created in existing educational entities and will correspond to a New Department of such entities. A scholarship program to incentivize the enrollment of women will be created.

BC.5 – REFUND initiative. This initiative intends to start the operationalization of the Rural Energy Fund with concrete projects and measures. It includes the creation of stable sources of revenue - the Power and Petrol Contribution (PPC) and the Lease Fee (LF) – and the creation of several credit lines to be made available by local banks to retailers: for acquisition of efficient appliances; to Distribution Companies: for grid connection and house electrification (to be recuperated from clients on a monthly basis) and/or for other growth investments; to new companies and business models such as Solar Portable Lamp rental or efficient cook stove manufacturing. Additionally, the use of REFUND to support renewable off-taking together with Partial Risk Guarantee schemes will be studied.

BC.6 – Communication initiative. This initiative includes the communication on the implementation of the Rural Energy Master Plan to key stakeholders, the communication to the general public on areas that require more awareness such as Solar Portable Lamps, efficient cooking or appliances, and finally the communication to potential donors for fund raising.

INVESTMENTS AND IMPACT OF THE BC INITIATIVES