REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

African Development Bank

Renewable Energy and Energy efficiency Division – (PERN 1)

Energy Sector Specialist – Public and Private Sector Operations

Individual Long-term Consultant

Expressions of interest are being requested for an Individual Long-term Consultant Position

1. The African Development Bank (AfDB) invites eligible consultants to indicate their Interest in providing individual consultant services (Energy Sector Specialist – Public and Private Sector Operations) to support the Desert to Powert (DtP) Taskforce. The DtP initiative aims to accelerate economic development in the Sahel region through the deployment of solar technologies at scale. Specifically, DtP proposes to deliver electricity to 160 million people on-grid and 90 million off-grid and to add solar energy generation capacity of up to 10 GW through a combination of public and private interventions. The initiative covers 11 countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan). The initial rollout will focus on the G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger). It aims to develop and implement electrification program based on solar power generation including grid based, mini-grid and off-grid access scale up for households, social and economic infrastructure including energy for productive uses. The program will support ambition of the governments in the region to fight poverty, create employment for the youth, migration and desertification.

Within the Renewable Energy and Energy efficiency Department and under the overall supervision of the Director of PERN and the DtP Initiative, the Energy Sector Specialist will be based at the Bank headquarters in Abidjan.

2. The services to be provided under the assignment include :

2.1 Private Sector Operations :

• Proactively identify potential investment partners and opportunities based on industry experience, reputation, market potential, financial capability, and strategic fit ;
• Assist in the expansion of the energy private sector pipeline, including initial project screening, application preparation, and relationship management with Partners and other key stakeholders ;
• Assist on the transaction processing for AfDB private sector operations, on solar on grid projects and private sector interventions in the off-grid and Solar Home Systems (SHS) space ;
• Assess the attractiveness of specific investment opportunities with a strong focus on credit quality and development impact ;
• Support investment officers to prepare project appraisal documents for presentation to the department, review committees, senior management and finally to the Board of Directors ;
• Support investment officers to carry out on-site due diligence of projects ;
• Support investment officers in negotiation of finance documentation and achievement of financial close ;
• Participate in the identification, development, structuring and processing of energy projects to be considered for private sector financing ;
• Participate in due diligence missions and provide technical support in negotiations with project developers, sponsors, and financiers to facilitate the financial closing of private sector transactions and implement projects ;
• Participate in specific private sector transaction meetings with external technical advisors, consultants and lawyers.

2.2 Public Operations :

• Preliminary analysis of projects concepts notes received from the countries, including: the analysis of the project’s outlines, its provisional financial structure and its state of preparation ;
• Support for the preparation of terms of reference for additional studies to be carried out for the effective formulation of the projects ;
• Examine reports from various existing technical feasibility studies for projects ;
• Define the strategic context of the projects within the framework of the government’s strategic objectives and the technical justification of the projects ;
• Define the different components and activities to be carried out for each project ;
• Propose the provisional schedule for the execution of project work ;
• Determine the risks that may affect the achievement of each project, as well as the measures to be taken to mitigate them ;
• Propose appropriate arrangements for the technical management and the preparation of progress reports for each project ;
• Data collection and analysis of the development of production, imports, exports, transport and distribution of electrical energy in the country concerned as well as the study of forecasts of electricity demand of the country for the next ten years ;
• Evaluation of the operating performance of the country’s electrical energy production, transport and distribution system ;
• Determination and evaluation of the KWh cost prices ;
• Assessment of the technical constraints recorded in the electricity sector ;
• Analysis of the electricity production, transport and distribution investment program of the electricity company ;
• Collecting information on the detailed progress of projects underway in the electricity sub-sector (objectives, donors, amounts financed, execution time, probable date of operation, etc.) ;
• Analyze the countries policies for the development of the energy sector and particularly with regard to electricity ;
• Analyze the sector’s development objectives and strategies; constraints hampering the achievement of sector objectives and actions taken to overcome these constraints ;
• Analyze of the current organization of the electricity subsector ;
• Examine the mechanisms for controlling and regulating the activities of the electricity subsector ;
• Data collection and analysis of the country’s main energy resources ;
• Manage the operations process of project preparation and implementation activities with Technical Partners, including procuring and managing other consultants as needed ;
• Support the development of appropriate project structures with a view to attracting private sector investment and optimizing the mix of financial instruments ;
• Understand relevant cross-sectoral areas and how they are interrelated with the ability to identify lending and non-lending opportunities in energy.

3. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this assignment (documents, reference to similar services, CVs, experience in similar assignments, etc.) ;

4. The eligibility criteria, the establishment of a short list and the selection procedure shall be in conformity with the Bank’s Rules and Procedure for the Use of Consultants. Please, note that interest expressed by a Consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include him/her in the shortlist ;

5. The duration of services is twelve (12) months and the estimate starting date is early March 2020 ;

6. Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours.

For the EOI to be considered, the consultant needs to be registered in the AfDB DACON Consultant.

Database by following the link : https://www.afdb.org/fr/projects-and-operations/procurement/consultancy-services-e-consultant/ .

7. Expressions of interest must be received in softcopy at the email address below no later than Wednesday, 12th of February 2020 at 17:00 hours GMT and mention “Energy Sector Specialist – Name.”  :

Ms. Adiaratou Bah – E-mail : a.bah@afdb.org with copy to w.diogo@afdb.org and g.amehou@afdb.org

Any questions and requests for clarifications may be sent to : Ms. Adiaratou Bah – E-mail : a.bah@afdb.org with copy to w.diogo@afdb.org and g.amehou@afdb.org

8. A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end of the request of expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria :