ToR Consultant for Technical Assistance to ECREEE for supporting member states in improving the enabling environment and provide project development support for off-grid and on-grid RE

Background

An important factor for economic development in the ECOWAS region that consists of 15 countries is a supply of electricity at affordable prices; however, there are considerable gaps in the electricity supply in the region due to a lack of generation capacity and insufficient infrastructure for transmission and distribution of electricity. These problems could be partly addressed through a better integration of the West African power market, by developing the region’s renewable energy (RE) potential and by promoting energy efficiency (EE). It is against this background that the West African Power Pool (WAPP), the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) and the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority were created.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU) is supporting all three regional organizations in the framework of the programme “Promotion of a climate-friendly power market in the ECOWAS region”. The ProMERC support to ECREEE is cofinanced by the European Union (EU) in the framework of the project “Improving the governance of the RE and EE sector in West Africa” which is known by its French acronym AGoSEREE-AO. The EU contribution to this project is financed by the Regional Indicative Programme of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF).

In this context, GIZ is supporting ECREEE to a) to develop regional corridors for solar energy, wind energy and hydropower; b) support ECOWAS member states in creating an enabling environment for grid-connected RE; c) develop regional RE standards and introduce them at the national level; d) establish a regional RE skills certification scheme; e)  provide technical assistance to developers of grid-connected RE projects and disseminate experiences with existing projects; f) promote off-grid RE solutions; and g) promote regional EE standards and labelling (S&L) for electric appliances.

This is why ECREEE in cooperation with GIZ is recruiting a consultant in order to support the ECREEE/GIZ team in providing technical assistance to selected ECOWAS member states to improve the enabling environment for on-grid and off-grid RE and in managing a Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) for supporting the development of grid-connected RE projects.

Objective

The objective of this assignment is to assist ECREEE and its partners to provide technical assistance to selected ECOWAS member states to improve the enabling environment for on-grid and off-grid RE and provide support to developers of grid-connected RE projects.

Tasks

Under the supervision of the manager of ECREEE’s RE program, the Consultant will implement the following activities.

• Work with the ECREEE and GIZ team to identify and select the national institutions (e.g. Ministries of Energy, energy regulatory agencies, RE agencies, rural electrification agencies) that will receive technical assistance from ECREEE/GIZ for improving the national enabling environments for off-grid or on-grid RE
• Define with the respective institutions the exact scope of the required technical assistance and prepare a) Letters of Agreement between ECREEE and the respective institution as well as b) Terms of Reference for the technical assistance (the TA itself may be delivered by other consultants)
• Work with the ECREEE and GIZ team to identify suitable recipients of TA for the development of grid-connected RE projects and to assess requests for such TA; the recipients may be public or private project developers or public institutions conducting RE IPP tenders
• Define with the respective individuals/firms or institutions the exact scope of the required technical assistance and prepare a) Letters of Agreement between ECREEE and the respective beneficiary as well as b) Terms of Reference for the technical assistance (the TA itself may be delivered by other consultants)
• Document the results of and experience with the TA support for dissemination through various media
• Participate in the documentation of experiences with the development and operation with existing RE flagship projects (such as the Makeni biofuels refinery incl. biomass power plant in Sierra Leone)
• Procure and manage consultancy contracts for the above-mentioned tasks
• Organize events in the context of the above-mentioned tasks;
• Implement communication activities in the context of the above-mentioned tasks
• Assist ECREEE in maintaining a database of key contacts and documentsincl. documents on the supported projects as well as the legal and regulatory frameworks in the member states
• Participate in coordination meetings, conference calls and workshops with ECREEE staff, TA beneficiaries, other consultants and institutions involved in the above-mentioned activities.

The selected candidate may also be required to participate in other activities of the RE programme.

Deliverables

The consultant will be required to deliver the following assignment outputs in accordance with the tentative time schedule. All deliverables shall be submitted electronically. All reports should have stand-alone executive summaries. The key deliverables shall be the following:

• Monthly progress reports
• Inception report on the activities conducted during the first 4 weeks incl. workplan with proposed activities for the following 9 months
• Documents summarizing the situation before and after the provision of technical assistance to project developers or national institutions
• Meetings and workshops reports
• List of documents provided to ECREEE for storage in ECREEE’s internal document database
• Final report incl. lessons learnt and recommendations for future activities

All reports should be submitted in English unless otherwise agreed.

Time frame

1^st March to 15^th December 2018 (10.5 person months)

Duty station

Praia, Cabo Verde with frequent travel to other ECOWAS countries.

Profile

• Citizen of one of the ECOWAS member states
• Hold a master’s degree or equivalent in energy engineering, renewable energy, or related fields.
• He or she should have a minimum of five years work experience in the energy sector incl. experience RE project development support and providing technical assistance to public institutions for improving the enabling environment for on-grid and off-grid RE.
• He or she should have proven project management experience and relevant work experience in at least two ECOWAS countries.
• He or she should be able to work in multi-cultural environment and be fluent in English and French. Portuguese skills would be an advantage.

Required documents

The application should include the following documents:

• A motivation letter including a phone number and email address
• An updated CV with a picture (no more than 4 pages)
• Copies of relevant diplomas (university degrees, etc.)
• A short technical proposal including the following chapters: Interpretation of objectives, proposed methodology, proposed workplan.
• The financial proposal should indicate the daily/monthly rate and the cost for travelling to/from Praia at the beginning and at the end of the assignment, if applicable. Other travel costs will be covered by ECREEE outside of this contract.

Submission of proposals

Interested candidates should send their technical and financial offer to ECREEE by email on or before February 17^th, 2018 using the following address: Tender@ecreee.org. The individual email size should not exceed 10 MB.