Growing Government Engagement in Energy Access

Funder: GGEEA is funded with UK Aid from the UK government via the Transforming Energy Access programme.

Duration:

Phase 1: 2020-2022

Phase 2:  2022-2026

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS:

AMG-COP/AfCAP/SSN

GGEEA is a key partnership, between the African Association for Rural Electrification (CLUB-ER) and SouthSouthNorth (SSN) African Mini-Grids Community of Practice (AMG-CoP) under the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP), formerly the Africa LEDS Partnership (AfLP). The AMG-CoP brings together African government representatives from governmental departments, Rural Electrification Agencies and National Energy Commissions with representatives from the private sector, academia and International Organisations who design, finance and implement mini-grid systems.

CLUB-ER

The African Association for Rural Electrification/CLUB-ER is a bilingual network (English/French) which brings together about 40 agencies and structures in charge of rural electrification in 35 countries of the continent. CLUB-ER serves as a forum for discussions amongst all African stakeholders in charge of developing and implementing renewable energy, increasing access to modern, affordable and reliable electricity services in rural areas. CLUB-ER aims to accelerate the deployment of mini-grids in Africa, increasing the use of affordable decentralized clean energy options for poor households and enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

STRATEGIC PARTNERS:

Foundation pour les études et recherches sur le développement international (FERDI)

Background

Governments have an important role to play in facilitating an enabling environment for large-scale roll-out of off-grid systems. For most SSA countries, however, mini-grid regulatory frameworks remain inadequate /weak and/or mon-conducive to the private sector. The main hurdles to the full deployment of mini-grids include weak institutions e.g. resources allocated to rural electrification agencies, poor licensing frameworks which further delay implementation of the project and increase project development costs, limited ongoing monitoring and evaluation capability to collect the evidence of successful projects and replicate lessons learnt, and the inability of the private sector to charge cost-reflective tariffs in the absence of a sustainable subsidy scheme and therefore affecting the ability to attract further private capital and industry sustainability. In addition to the challenges with regulations, more than half (60%) of mini-grid projects in SSA were found to fail within 6 months due to the lack of stakeholder cooperation, planning and implementation, poor maintenance capacities and lack of local acceptance.

Aim

The GGEEA project aims to expand its South-South capacity building programme (developed during phase I of the project) targeting public officials i.e. ministries, local government and Rural Electrification Agencies (REAs), for the off-grid sector. It aims to improve datasets and the understanding of why mini-grid projects fail, and foster greater public-private engagement to ensure more bankable mini-grid projects are developed. The project intends to benefit rural communities within SSA through the provision of affordable and reliable energy access.

The project will aim to include the notion of inclusivity in energy access to promote Sustainable Development Goal 7 (ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern electricity for all). Through building the capacity of public sector officials and decision-makers, this project seeks to create an enabling environment in governments for the large-scale implementation of mini-grids to facilitate enhanced energy access in SSA. The intended impact is to increase the use of affordable, decentralized, clean energy options for poor households and enterprises in SSA.

GGEEA Phase I

During GGEEA phase I, the COVID pandemic caused a shift from in-person workshops and meetings to a series of Small Private Online Courses (SPOC). During GGEEA I, 3 SPOCs were developed, and 58 officials participated in the training.

GGEEA Phase II

Through building the capacity of public sector officials and decision-makers, phase II aims to create an enabling environment in governments for the large-scale implementation of mini-grids to facilitate enhanced energy access in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).  The project seeks to improve understanding of why mini-grid projects fail prematurely and develop relevant databases to support the development of bankable mini-grids. Observations from CLUB-ER engagements indicate that the private sector lacks reliable data needed to plan, implement and maintain cost-effective mini-grid projects. The second phase of the project will aim to: continue and expand online training; improve data on mini-grids;  host a number of public-private engagement forums; and support peer learning within the mini-grid space.

The project will achieve the above through 4 main Work Packages (WP):

1. WP 1: Setting-up curriculum and course materials and implementation of online training for rural electrification officials
2. WP 2: Establish a reliable database in mini-grid to support planning through improved evaluation and viability of rural electrification solutions
3. WP 3: Facilitating public-private sector engagement to support collaboration
4. WP 4: Capture and disseminate lessons learned from the GGEEA project