Proposed GHEEA Pilot Project Concept Note

Pilot  Project Concept Note

Project title: Governance Health Education Energy Access Pilot & Technical Assistance (GHEEA_PTA)

Collaborating GOL Agency: Rural and Renewable Energy Agency (RREA), Liberia 

In Consulting Partnership with:

Jimmy N Nyanwapolu 

Concept Developer

Goal: Develop feasible Policies and programs to accelerate private sector participation in rural and renewable energy projects and investments through a GHEEA public private partnership concept

Strategic Approach: Applying GHEEA model to initiate and support the RREA’s private sector participation mandate for rural and renewable energy investments by developing an Integrated District Energy Access (IDEA) plan that electrifies district’s public facilities, initially including healthcare center, school, and commissioner’s office building in partnership with interested parties.

Project description 

Governance-Health-Education Energy Access (GHEEA) is a public private partnership concept for sustainable renewable energy access. It is a small to medium scale energy project financing model aimed at attracting private sector participation in Liberia’s renewable energy space. As a bottom-top initiative, it enables electrification of district level social and governance institutions, which is fundamental in developing a national Independent Power Producers (IPP) regime. IDEA is a short-medium term rural electrification plan that rallies private sector led  district electrification through stakeholder engagements and political will through each district legislator to advocate district energy financing budgetary appropriations. It helps implement institutional electrification projects for public facilities and subsequently adopts community solar to provide electricity to district's households. 

The  Government of Liberia (GOL) deploys and operates more fossil fuel generators across the country to power public facilities due to limited transmission and distribution networks across the Country. To gradually decommission these distributed fossil generation (DFG) systems at public facilities, GHEEA aims at creating a renewable energy project financing and investment opportunity through partnerships with requisite government agencies, local energy companies, and financial institutions to develop an Energy as a Service (EaaS) mechanism. These projects will facilitate replacement scheduling of DFG power systems in public facilities with distributed renewable energy and storage systems (DRESS) across off and weak grid regions. The  outcome is not only increasing affordable clean energy access for service productive use of energy (SPUE) in the governance, healthcare, and educational sectors, but to advance decarbonization support while reducing public expenditures on fuel and maintenance by at least 50% annually..

To derive a proof of concept (POC) that  helps develop the necessary implementation policies and programs, a Pilot & Technical Assistance (PTA) project to support GHEEA is proposed with  jump start funding and technical assistance from GoL and development partners. Project site is located in Wainsue Town, Jorquelleh District 3, in Bong County, Liberia. It targets a District Commissioner’s Office building, a Junior High School and a clinic. A Solar PV + battery storage with 5kwp capacity will be installed on each  facility and a EaaS framework feasibility conducted. The GHEEA concept and pilot project aligns with Liberia’s 2009 National Energy Policy’s Renewable Energy Strategy Master Plan (RESMP) 2016-2030, specifically Beyond the Grid Program Initiative Two (BTG.2) which supports electrification of health centers, schools, and public facilities. 

Objectives:

1. Develop GHEEA pilot implementation plans to align with RREA’s enacted project planning and financing principal functions within 6 months 

   1. Design action plans through policy memo and meetings to strengthen GHEEA institutional adoption 

   2. Prepare appropriate energy business plans to finance electrification of health facility, junior/Senior high school and commissioner offices in a an identified administrative district 

   3. Engage relevant GOL sector agencies that include Ministries of Health, Education and Internal Affairs to develop needed energy as a service (EaaS) financing frameworks for their respective operational facilities in rural Liberia 

   4. Identify and solicit energy sector financing interests from local commercial banks 

   5. Identify and map local energy services providers and project developers to design project implementation agreements.

2. Implement 3 GHEEA pilot projects in 1 administrative district in Bong County in  12 months 

   1. Identify 1 administrative districts in Bong county Liberia and conduct need assessments for governance, health and education electrification needs for pilot projects 

   2. Conduct appropriate district stakeholders meetings to rally youth and women participation in the pilot projects

   3. Award 3 pilot project contracts to local energy service providers upon vetting and issuance of power purchase agreements 

   4. Install at least 3kwp PV with appropriate battery storage systems on each identified  health facility, junior/senior high school and commissioner office

   5. Install at least 100mbs capacity Internet connectivity at each facility to digitize information flow and operations 

3. Monitor and report progress 

   1. Provide monitoring and evaluation plan to keep pilots on track 

   2. Report on  project outcomes, best practices, feasible proof GHEEA concept