SUMMARY

1. Background

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA) intends to explore options to increase the use of renewable energy in the SADC Region. One of the concrete outputs of this cooperation will be a Renewable Energy Strategy and Action Plan (RESAP) for the SADC Region.

During the last two decades SADC has outlined its energy strategy and policy in several documents such as SADC Protocol on Energy (1996), the SADC Energy Cooperation Policy and Strategy (1996) and the SADC Energy Activity Plan (2000), among others. However, these policies and strategies have been overtaken by developments in the sector regionally and globally leading to the continuous change in energy use patterns and ever growing energy demand that outstrips supply. As a result these documents need to be updated. SADC has recently formulated the Regional Energy Access Strategy and Action Plan as a step towards realigning the Energy sector to emerging issues.

Within the SADC Region the opportunities and importance of renewable energy is widely acknowledged. Renewable energy resources in the region are abundant and versatile, especially solar energy, biomass energy and hydro power. On the other hand, energy based on fossil fuels is still available at affordable cost, like the coal-based power from South Africa, for instance. Therefore, investments on and consequent energy production from renewable resources should be technically and economically competitive with the existing and new energy production based on fossil fuels. This, in addition to high initial investments required for the energy investments in general, will be challenging for many Member States, which lack funding for development of energy infrastructure. In addition, all energy investments have to compete for scarce funding with other infrastructure investments, like those on schools, hospitals, roads etc.

2. Purpose

The project will contribute to the overall goal of SADC Member States to utilise and benefit from the significant renewable energy resources that exist in the Region. At the moment, only a fraction of these resources is utilised excluding the biomass resources that are being widely used in small-scale devices in households, schools, hospitals etc. However, biomass is used in most cases inefficiently because the technical quality of the devices (stoves, fireplaces etc.) is poor, and on the other hand, the users cannot afford to buy more advanced equipment. In addition to the potential arising from energy savings by replacing the present devices with more efficient ones, there are still substantial opportunities to increase biomass use in the region since there are untapped biomass resources that could be utilised in a sustainable way.

The focus of the RESAP should, in addition to bioenergy, be on solar energy and hydro power. Geothermic energy is available to some extent and wind energy to minor extent locally. Due to the above-mentioned reasons, focus should be set on developing and putting into use least-cost energy production options that increase the availability of energy to a great majority of people. At the moment this majority has in most cases only biomass available for cooking and heating, and to some extent paraffin for lighting.

Such use of renewable energy that will increase economic activities and productivity, and consequently alleviate poverty, should have a high priority in the RESAP.

3. Scope of Work and Deliverables

In order to achieve the objectives of the study the Consultant has to perform a set of tasks and produce acceptable deliverables, which are described below. The Consultant will have to make maximum use of the existing data and information, do literature review internally, regionally, and internationally and closely liaise with the Directorate of Infrastructure and Services of the SADC Secretariat. The Consultant shall also consult the Departments of Energy of Member States and their stakeholders and other institutions of relevance in the region in the execution of the tasks. The major tasks and deliverables of this consultancy should include but be not limited to the following:

1. Inception report has to contain a description of start-up activities, the detailed work plan with clear steps and goals, including dates, places and personnel who will complete the steps. The inception report will also explain methodologies, which will be employed. It should also describe in detail the methods and the extent of data collection that will be used in carrying out tasks (b) and (c). Besides, the inception report will list and display the data that has been collected so far, using graphs, charts and lists;
2. Report on potential for least-cost and sustainable renewable energy use of different renewable energy resources including potential for energy savings;
3. Report on necessary technologies, related environmental impacts, required investments to implement the strategy, required funding for that, and the measures to raise the required funding;
4. Draft Final Report (RESAP) and its presentation to and discussion with the SADC Energy Division and Member States;
5. Final Report (which is the mentioned SADC Renewable EnergyStrategy and Action Plan) incorporating the comments from the SADC Energy Division and the consultative workshops with SADC and other pertinent organisations. Both the Draft Final Report and the Final Report will have an Executive Summary.

The RESAP document should list and emphasise concrete actions instead of desired but inaccurately or even vaguely defined aspirations.

4. Work Plan

The Consultant will upon award of the contract, prepare a scheduled work plan based on a timeframe not exceeding eight (8) months. SADC Energy Division will review and ensure that the consultant clearly conforms to the deliverables list shown in the previous section when defining the detailed tasks. The delivery of the listed 5 deliverables will be broken down in a list of tasks. It is expected that such a list would contain about 20 tasks.

5. Manpower Requirements

The Consultant shall be a suitably qualified company or organisation, which has prior experience in policy and strategy development and extensive knowledge of renewable energy sector. Experience and knowledge from developing countries, particularly from Southern Africa will be an asset. The Client reserves the right to approve the qualifications and experiences of the Consultant. The Consultant should list the experts who will participate in the project in question, describe their role in the project, the extent of their participation (number of work days), and attach their CV’s.

6. Execution of the Study

The Client shall be the Executive Secretary of SADC. The Director of the Directorate of Infrastructure and Services will provide the link between the Consultant and the SADC Secretariat. The Consultant will be required to produce deliverables as follows:

7. Assistance to the Consultants

The SADC Secretariat will provide, where available, critical information to the consultants (e.g. relevant protocols, policy reports and documents) and facilitate, where necessary, contacts with SADC National Contact Points (NCPs), SADC Energy Ministries.

8. Time Schedule

The Consultant should present an implementation schedule (in the form of a bar chart or Gantt chart), specifying activities to be undertaken (according to the task list, see section 4), and estimates for start-up, duration and completion of each activity in the inception report.

9. Project budget

The Consultant has to present a budget for carrying out the tasks of the project. The budget should include the costs in relevant categories: fees, travel expenses, per diems and all other expenses in detail.

10. Monitoring and Evaluation

The Consultant should identify key indicators and methodology for monitoring project progress, results and activities. Methods for collecting relevant information should be specified. Assignment of responsibilities for project monitoring at the micro-level to the various actors involved e.g. Member States Energy departments; the private sector etc. should be indicated.

11. Submission of Tenders

Tenders should be submitted in two clearly labelled separate envelopes (one labelled Technical and the other Financial) and both with the inscription: Tender for Preparation of the SADC Renewable Energy Strategy and Action Plan

Attention: Odala Matupa
Programme Officer - Power
SADC Secretariat
Private Bag 0095
Gaborone
Botswana

Or delivered to:

SADC Headquarters, Plot No. 54385, Central Business District, Gaborone,
BOTSWANA

By 15:00 hours on Friday 25 February, 2011

Mr. Odala Matupa is contactable on telephone +267 395 1863 and e-mail omatupa@sadc.int

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