AGoSEREE-AO - Improving the Governance of the RE & EE sector in West Africa

The European Union (EU) and the German government are supporting bilateral and regional efforts to improve access to modern energy and promote renewable energy (RE) as well as energy efficiency (EE) since many years. This includes German and EU support to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its specialized institutions for the energy sector, namely the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) and the West African Power Pool (WAPP). In 2017 the EU under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) approved the regional programme “Improving the Governance of the Energy Sector in West Africa” (known by its French acronym AGoSE-AO) that is supporting the above-mentioned institutions as well as the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Centre for Renewable Energy and Industrial Maintenance (CERMI) in Cabo Verde. Germany and the EU a greed to join forces in their support to ECREEE in the period 2018 to 2020 and jointly finance the project “Improving the governance of the RE and EE sector in West Africa” (AGoSEREE-AO), which is part of the AGoSE programme and implemented by Deutsche Gesellscha􀅌 für Interna􀆟onale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in coopera􀆟on with ECREEE.

The AGoSEREE-AO project strives to contribute to the improvement of the regional governance of the energy sector in West Africa through activities on the regional and national level. It provides technical assistance for initiatives aimed at improved access to modern energy and the promotion of RE and EE to a variety of public and private actors from the 15 ECOWAS countries and Mauritania. Through this, the project contributes to the achievement of the following objectives of the AGoSE programme:

The project contributes to the West Africa Clean Energy Corridor (WACEC) initiative by developing strategies for the regional corridors for solar energy, hydropower and wind energy and promoting their implementation. This will include activities to invite a multitude of regional and national actors to agree on joint and complementary actions contributing to the objectives of the three strategies. Furthermore, ECREEE and GIZ will bring together the relevant stakeholders at regular intervals and monitor the implementation of the three strategies.

In order to increase the amount of RE electricity production for domestic consumption and regional electricity trade, ECREEE and GIZ will provide technical assistance to the relevant stakeholders of selected member states (Ministries of Energy, RE Agencies, regulators, utilities, etc.) to create an enabling environment for grid-connected RE projects upon request. The project will support these actors in the development of new or modification of existing legal and regulatory documents, the improvement of administrative procedures and the implementation of institutional reforms. This may involve the introduction of new policy instruments or the reform and/or operationalization of existing mechanisms. Country-specific interventions will be agreed upon and designed jointly with the respective beneficiaries.

So far only a few West African countries have RE standards, and the widespread use of substandard products is harming the RE market. The project will therefore develop regional standards for the most relevant RE components in a consultative approach. Once these standards are approved by the relevant authorities, it will disseminate information about the new standards to public and private institutions and promote their use on the national level.

Standards and labelling are powerful instruments to promote the use of energy-efficient electric appliances. ECREEE has already developed Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for lighting, refrigerators and air conditioners. The project will develop additional MEPS for two other types of electric appliances in a consultative approach promote the adoption of all existing MEPS at the national level. This will be based on a newly developed regional directive or regulation. In addition, the project will support the development of a regional labeling system for electrical appliances based on the MEPS.

ECREEE with support from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and GIZ started developing a voluntary Regional Certification Scheme (RCS) for solar PV technicians in 2015. The certificate for off-grid solar PV technicians is the first certificate that will be issued under the regional certification programme for sustainable energy skills that will initially focus on technicians designing and installing simple off-grid PV systems. The AGoSEREE-AO project will operationalize the RCS in cooperation with national institutions.

 

ECREEE AND DONOR PARTNERS STRATEGIZE TO IMPROVE GOVERNANCE OF THE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY SECTOR IN WEST AFRICA	AN HISTORIC STEP TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FUTURE