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Final Technical Validation workshop of the Rwanda Super Energy Services Company (Super ESCO) project preparatory support

With an objective  to review and validate the findings from the project tasks and build on recommendations to be taken forward for implementation of the Super ESCO facility, GGGI Rwanda in collaboration with MININFRA hosted a successful final  technical validation workshop for the Rwanda Super ESCO project. With more than 25 participants from public, private sector, academic, NGO’s, development partners the discussion was fruitful in meeting the objectives.

In his opening remarks, Dr Kyung Nam Shin, Assistant Director General and Head of IPSD, GGGI welcomed all participants and said that setting up of ESCO ecosystem is imperative in Rwanda as it has the capability to implement innovative EE projects as a proof of concept to be scaled up. He further highlighted that the Super ESCO in India (EESL) success story could serve as a model for best practices.

On behalf of Permanent Secretary at MININFRA, Annick Muhama/DG for Energy Directorate, said that the Government of Rwanda considers EE as an integral component tool in its energy policy & its energy sector strategic plan as well its Nationally Determined Contributions targets & other climate commitments

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in collaboration with the Rwanda Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) are in the process of concluding the project preparatory work to conduct a detailed market assessment of energy efficiency market in Rwanda and setup a Super ESCO (Energy Services Company) in Rwanda. The preparatory work is funded by the Korea Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) under the GGGI – Korea Trust Fund. The project “Support to set up a Super ESCO in Rwanda as a vehicle to promote energy efficiency” aims to support the Government of Rwanda (GoR) to promote and develop a market for energy efficiency initiatives and solutions by identifying priority areas of interventions and investments that will ultimately contribute towards Rwanda’s energy sector and climate change goals. Super ESCO facility in Rwanda has the potential to accelerate energy efficiency. Super ESCO is mainly a public sector entity, which focuses on implementing large scale energy efficiency projects, facilitating financing with innovative business models and capacity building of private sector energy services companies (ESCOs).

Dheeraj Arrabothu, Sr. Green Buildings Officer and project manager for the Super ESCO project, GGGI Rwanda, shared the vision, mission and position of GGGI. He also explained how energy efficiency is a priority for the Government of Rwanda and GGGI and provided an overview of the different asset classes for public sector buildings, emphasizing that they all have high energy consumption. He stressed on how the updated Rwanda NDC 2020, the Rwanda Green Building Minimum Compliance System (GBMCS), which was created by RHA with assistance from GGGI and adopted in April 2019, and the Rapid Building Performance Assessment carried out by GGGI, provided the context and background for carrying out the Super ESCO preparatory work in Rwanda.

Super ESCO primarily focuses on demand aggregation and standardization to drive down the transaction costs. The project has the following main tasks:
Task 1 – Detailed market assessment of energy efficiency potential in Rwanda in one priority sub-sector which is non-residential buildings that includes public buildings (administrative, commercial, education), hotel buildings and healthcare facilities.
Task 2 – Institutional assessment to identify potential candidate institution to host the Super ESCO facility and the needed policy, regulatory, legal, capacity, and institutional framework to operationalize the facility.
Task 3 – Develop 5-year Business plan for the Super ESCO model GGGI has engaged the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited (PwCPL) under this project to support the delivery of the above tasks. The project preparatory support was kicked off during the SE4All Forum in Kigali in May 2022 and will end in April 2023. GGGI and PWC team with support from MININFRA conducted detailed energy audits of select non-residential buildings and facilities in November 2022, organized 1 to 1 bilateral consultation with key government and private sector stakeholders on institutional assessment to identify the best institution to host a Super ESCO facility and conducted an interim project progress review workshop on February 2023. With this background, GGGI in collaboration with MININFRA are organizing the final technical validation workshop joined by various key stakeholders involved in energy efficiency initiatives and members from the energy efficiency technical working group to review the findings from the assessments as a project comes to end as well as to build on recommendations to be taken forward for establishing and operationalization of for implementation of the Super ESCO facility.

The Presentation of findings led by Mr. Kulbhushan Kumar from PwC India (a consulting firm appointed by GGGI under the Rwanda Super ESCO project). He presented that Rwanda Energy Group (REG) as a public based SuperESCO (along with its subsidiary company Energy Utility Corporation Limited) as an option that is technically the ideal candidate to host the super ESCO, gave recommendations in terms of developing a Super ESCO in Rwanda and shared barriers to implement energy efficiency projects in the public sector.

The expected outcomes from the workshop were:
A. Understand the scope of energy efficiency in non-residential buildings and facilities in Rwanda from the detailed energy audits conducted.
B. Gain knowledge on the findings of the market assessment of energy efficiency potential in Rwanda as well as the institutional assessment to identify potential institution to host the Super ESCO facility and the needed policy, regulatory, legal, capacity, and institutional framework to operationalize the SuperESCO facility.
C. Understand the finalized SuperESCO business plan for 5 years which includes year to year investment required, cash flow and Return on Investment, source of investment mobilization, possible technology interventions considering Rwanda’s preparedness to set up SuperESCO in Rwanda
D. Explore the possibility of launching National Programs on lighting, cooling, streetlighting, including different ESCO models which could be adopted with suggested repayment mechanisms.
E. Learn more about the recently approved Africa Super ESCO Accelerator Program (AfDB) of AfDB and the success story of Super ESCO in India (EESL) as the largest SuperESCO in the world

Mr. Kumar, Director, PWC started by explaining a Super ESCO, how it works and how it impact private players as well as approach and methodology for institutional assessment.

Mr Jayakrishnan Nair, Associate Director , PWC explained the proposed Super ESCO Business Plan which include year to year investment required, cash flow & Return on Investment, source of investment mobilization, possible technology interventions considering Rwanda’s preparedness to set up Super ESCO

Mr. Soumya Garnaik Prasad presented the success story of Super ESCO in India and the establishment and operationalization of EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Limited) where he took us through EESL journey as the largest SuperESCO in the world -driving energy efficiency solutions in India and globally

Mr Luc Tossou, Energy efficiency specialist from AfDB presented about ASAP Program (Africa SuperESCO Accelerator Program) which has been approved in February 2023 with an overall dedicated Technical Assistance envelope of 5 M USD for an implementation period of 3 years .

Caroline Raes GGGI Country Representative gave the closing remarks by applauding and thanking MININFRA, PWC, AfDB for their efforts in the project preparatory work and all the stakeholders present for the valuable input in validating the activities & assessments completed in Rwanda