STUDY COMMITTEE ON RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

3rd MEETING OF THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

REPORT OF STUDY COMMITTEE N°2

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), 3rd - 5th April 2007

Introduction

The 3rd meeting of the Scientific Committee of UPDEA was held from 3rd to 5thApril 2007 at Hotel Ivoire inAbidjan (Cote d’Ivoire). The meeting enabled the Rural Electrification subcommittee to work on and exchange ideas on how to advance the course of the committee as spelt out in its 2005-2008 mandate. It also enabled the committee to make recommendations and proposals towards the 16th congress of UPDEA scheduled for June 2008 in NairobiKenya.

The issues that were discussed bothered on:

-Cross Border Electrification;

-The Fund for the Development of Rural Electrification in Africa (FADER);

-International Conference on Rural Electrification scheduled to held in CasablancaMorocco from 22 to24 October 2007;

-The determination of subthemes from the main theme of the 16th Congress namely Good Governance in African Utilities for increased access to Electricity for all the People of Africa, as well as determine a theme for Round Table discussion at the forthcoming congress.

Utilities from the following 6 countries participated:

-South Africa (ESKOM);

-Nigeria (PHCN);

-Ghana (ECGandVRA);

-Morocco (ONE);

-Angola (ENE);

-Côte d’Ivoire (SOPIEand SOGEPE).

In undertaking the committees work the Coordinator was SOPIE (Côte d’Ivoire) while SOGEPE (Côte d’Ivoire) was Rapporteur.

From the deliberations of the Study Committee the following were adopted:

ICROSS BORDER ELECTRIFICATION:

In order to accelerate the implementation of Cross border electrification projects, the sub-committee proposed the following:

  1. The utilities undertake feasibility studies locally before seeking for funding.
  2. Encourage countries that have completed feasibility studies on identified cross border projects, to submit proposals to their respective power pools to facilitate the sourcing of funds.
  3. Promote the establishment of Joint Technical Committees from the utilities involved for the management of the cross border electrification projects
  4. Establish closer cooperation among countries concerned in order to find solutions to common problems they encounter during implementation.

II AFRICAN FUND FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

Having finalized the terms of reference for the feasibility studies for the establishment of the rural electrification fund, FADER, the sub-committee recommends the selection of a consultant to collate the experiences of UPDEA member nations for the implementation of FADER.

III INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RURAL ELECTRIFICATION IN MOROCCO 22-24 October, 2007

The subcommittee was of the view that the content of the paper submitted by the Moroccan utility on ICRE was good enough for the implementation of this very important international conference. In pursuance of this goal, the committee took into consideration the themes proposed by the conference organising committee of the Moroccan utility - ONE

The study committee however suggested additions to the themes proposed for the workshops aspect of the conference. This had to do with funding mechanisms for Rural Electrification –Financial Engineering, FADER etc.

In addition, the committee recommended that the issue of cross border electrification as a means of facilitating regional integration should be added as a theme for the Workshop.

Furthermore, the committee members were encouraged to submit papers for presentations at the ICRE international conference.

IV16TH CONGRESS OF UPDEA - June 2008,NairobiKENYA

With regards to the 16th Congress of UPDEA, the subcommittee proposed the following sub-topics:

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND OPTIMIZATION OF INVESTMENT FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

And for the round table discussions, the following sub-theme was proposed:

THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL POWER ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRIFICATION PROJECTS

MEMBERS PRESENT

NAME / COUNTRY⁄ UTILITY / CONTACT / Email
Adjidjonu Samuel / Ghana, ECG / +233-20-8135611 /
Danladi Buikari / Ghana, VRA / +233 244615485 /
Cissé A. Kader / Côte d’Ivoire, SOGEPE / +223 20206264 /
Kassi Bagaman / Côte d’Ivoire, SOPIE / +225 20206245 /
Ladji Taoufik / Maroc, ONE / +212 22668476 /
Job Vikinger / Angola, ENE / +244 923513567 /
Isaac Sokop / South AFrica, ESKOM / +27 118003845 /
Wilson O. Emenike / PHCN, Nigeria / +2348033138987
+234 94135530 /

1/6