Promoting a Climate-friendly Energy Market in West Africa (ProCEM-II)

1. CONTEXT / BACKGROUND

The regional electricity market is not yet fully functional. So far, only small amounts of electricity are traded/exchanged across borders. Member states are reluctant to implement existing regional policies, regulations and processes. Many energy utilities are held back from participating in regional energy trade by structural deficits, economic weaknesses and a lack of operational capability. The full potential of RE in the region has also barely been exploited to date. Integration of RE into the grid is being hindered by largely technical and regulatory issues. As a result, the institutional, technical, legal and regulatory frameworks for a climate-friendly regional electricity market are still insufficient (core problem). The TC module is designed to create an environment conducive to operationalising the second phase of the electricity market in the ECOWAS region. This second phase, which involves the operational phase of the regional electricity market, is envisaged for 2022 and provides for an intensification of energy trade between the WAPP member states. This phase follows on from the first phase, which began in 2018 and saw the infrastructure, instruments and institutions of the West African electricity market developed and/or established. The module objective is: The institutional, technical, legal and regulatory frameworks for a climate-friendly regional electricity market have been improved.

2. MAIN ACTIVITIES & IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

The Capacity Development (CD) strategy of the project involves further developing skills and capacities at the three CD levels of individual, organisation and society.

• At individuals’ level, the technical and managerial skills of political decision-makers, as well as those of experts and managers of the implementation partners, regional training institutions, selected public agencies at national level, energy utilities and the private sector will be strengthened in order to assist them in carrying out their mandate and/or work. New learning content will be developed and systematically mainstreamed within the existing training system. This includes digital learning platforms, which have proven effectiveness during the coronavirus pandemic.
• At the level of organisational development, the TC module addresses the improvement of service delivery processes, the development of new service offers (e.g. business models for BESS), and the establishment of interdisciplinary communication structures and processes in order to connect decision-makers and thereby step up the sharing of experience.
• At societal level, the module strengthens dialogue between public, private-sector and civil-society stakeholders at regional conferences with the goal of stepping up regional and international experience-sharing on topics such as RE and BESS.
  The Technical Cooperation module uses its influence with partners to promote gender equality by advocating for a minimum number of women to be intentionally selected for training-of-trainer courses and when choosing speakers for events, and for women to be strengthened in their role as (future) managers in the energy sector. Additionally, training is delivered in selected countries in cooperation with ECREEE on implementing gender action plans for the energy sector, and aspects of gender are integrated into new or existing training courses of regional training institutions.

The module follows a ‘do-no-harm’ approach in which all interventions are systematically reviewed to identify any unintended negative impacts that they could have on existing conflicts (e.g. competing use of land for agriculture and solar parks). In this context, the project also leverages its influence to call for particular account to be taken of economically weaker ECOWAS member states and for consideration to be given to the interests of disadvantaged population groups (e.g. when selecting pilot projects or developing infrastructure projects in the villages and communities affected).

3. ACHIEVED OUTPUTS (If the project is ongoing)

• NREAPs data was collected from ECREEE NFIs, and a regional validation workshop held in July 2023 in Niamey, Niger;
• The Standardized PPA was finalized; and
• A draft catalogue of standard models of guarantees and assurance has been completed.