81261130 — Technical Assistance for Design and Preparation of Tender Documents for Mini-grids in Ethiopia

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has placed a strong emphasis on achieving universal electrification by 2025 throughout the last 15 years. The Universal Electrification Access Program (UEAP) was an initiative launched by the Government in 2005 that enabled extension of the national grid to 6 000 towns and villages (up from the initial 667 connected towns). In spite of UEAP's success, the country's electrification rate remained at 20 %, for which the National Electrification Program (NEP) was launched in 2017 with the aim to shift the electrification approach from infrastructure development to service delivery via off-grid solutions. NEP is expected to electrify 35 % of the population through 9 million connections via, among others, the deployment of up to 700 mini-grids. Over 3 years, in close collaboration with the main Ethiopian Government partner, the Ministry of Water Irrigation and Energy, MoWIE, and in line with the National Electrification Plan, NEP2, the development project ‘Energising Development’ (EnDev) financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooporation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) will identify, develop, procure and install up to 10 mini-grids in Ethiopia and develop a conducive cooperative framework for massive upscaling. Within this framework, the project is seeking technical assistance for design and preparation of tender documents for procurement of up to 10 mini-grids to develop and showcase an Ethiopian model for cooperative managed and operated mini-grids. The assignment will be cofunded by EU.