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Praia, 24th October 2016 – The interest for low carbon renewable energy technologies is gaining momentum in West Africa. Renewable energy deployment is seen by ECOWAS Member Countries as a way to improve their power sector and expand electricity access. However, the lack of clear renewable energy policy instruments still poses as a main barrier for private sector participation.
Traditionally, many project developers have to negotiate with authorities the conditions applicable to each individual project such as individual feed-in tariffs (FiT). In recent years, tenders to select independent power producers have become increasingly prevalent in the region; tenders for which ceiling tariffs are needed but seldom used. Nevertheless, many ministries, regulators and utilities still lack appropriate instruments and methodologies to design fair and transparent renewable energy tariffs. Therefore, this remains a key barrier to cost-competitive projects and the renewable energy sector development in the region.
Thus, the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) represented by Mr. Mahama Kappiah, in collaboration with the EUEI Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF), represented by Mr. Benjamin Attigah, successfully launched the collaboration for the development of a set of tools to define tariffs for renewable energy systems in West Africa. The launch was held at the maiden edition of the ECOWAS Sustainable Energy Week, held in Accra- Ghana from October 17th to 19th 2016.
The overall objective for this regional initiative is to help ministries, regulators and utilities within the ECOWAS region to apply appropriate methodologies to enable them design renewable energy tariffs. For this, a toolbox with several standard tariff models (technology specific FiT, avoided costs based FiT, ceiling tariffs, etc.) and a guideline on how to integrate local considerations to easily adapt to the specificities of each country will be elaborated. The toolbox aims at providing an accessible, tailor-made information package to development partners and decision-makers on critical support elements in value chains that facilitate energy market development.
In addition to this, key personnel from ECOWAS ministries, regulatory agencies and utilities will be trained in its use.
The press release of the launch is available bellow for download.