9th February, Kigali, Rwanda , the Global Green Growth Institute hosted the hybrid workshop to review the progress of the interim findings of the Super Esco (Energy Services Company ) Project in Rwanda. With participants from the following institutions, organizations and partners, Government officials from MININFRA-Energy Directorate, MINECOFIN, REGEUCL, REG-EDCL, RURA, BRD, RHA, CPCIC
✓ Development Partners: UNEP R-Cool, AfDB Energy Efficiency Department
✓ Private Sector – EPD, RwGBO
✓ PwC Team
✓ GGGI Regional Energy Efficiency Lead – Asia (Virtual) and Principal Investment Specialist – Africa

The project “Support to set up a Super ESCO (Energy Services Company) 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.

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in collaboration with the Rwanda Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) are implementing a project preparatory work to assess the energy efficiency market in Rwanda and develop a new financial vehicle that can support the implementation of the energy efficiency initiatives. The preparatory work is funded by the Korea Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) under the GGGI – Korea Trust Fund. Rwanda aspires to become an upper middle-income economy by 2035 and high-income economy by 2050. To achieve this in a sustainable manner, energy efficiency (EE) is of critical importance. Taking this into hindsight, the government of Rwanda considers EE as an integral component tool in its energy policy and its energy sector strategic plan as well its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).

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 a 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 above tasks. The objective of the workshop was to review the progress of the interim findings from the above tasks and develop an actionable roadmap that will help Rwanda to setup the Super ESCO facility, with the expected Outcomes from the workshop as:
1. Understand the scope of energy efficiency in non-residential buildings and facilities in Rwanda from the detailed energy audits conducted
2. Gain knowledge on the interim findings of the market assessment of energy efficiency potential in Rwanda as well as the institutional assessment to identify potential candidate institution to host the Super ESCO facility andThe needed policy, regulatory, legal, capacity, and institutional framework to operationalize the SuperESCO facility

During the workshop the PWC Team gave a thorough presentation on the following Interim findings from the Detailed Energy Audits conducted for nonresidential buildings/facility, including an Interim findings on the market assessment of energy efficiency potential in Rwanda and Interim findings on the 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 SuperESCO facility.

GGGI India also gave a detailed presentation on Presentation of success story of Super ESCO in India (EESL) and insights on the establishment and operationalization of EESL.

The key takeaways from the workshop were agreed upon and  summarized as follows:
The project “Support to set up a Super ESCO (Energy Services Company) 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. Rwanda has an estimated market size of RWF 100 – 110 billion for appliance-based large-scale energy efficiency programs which could result in an energy-saving potential of 155 million kWh. In a high-ambition scenario, replacing 90% of the existing inefficient stock, Rwanda can achieve RWF 30 billion of energy efficiency monetary savings resulting in a GHG emission reduction of 90,783 tCO2/annum.
Detailed Energy Audits of 12 buildings/facilities were conducted in November 2022 and audit reports were shared with the respective facility managers ;
Based on the institutional assessment, REG-EUCL is the most ideal candidate to host the Super ESCO facility in Rwanda ;
Recommendation for operationalization of Super ESCO in Rwanda ;
Updating the main objectives of REG’s Memorandum of Association ;
Creation of an EE fund ;
Enhancing the technical capacity of the existing workforce ; Conduct nationwide load surveys
Creation of standardized ESCO procurement manuals ;
Develop Monitoring & Verification (M&V) standards and energy-baselining protocols ;
Develop Demand Side Management (DSM) regulation.

During the interim  progress review workshop the way forward was discussed with all the representatives and summarised by Mr. Dheeraj Arrabothu, Senior Green Building Officer/GGGI Rwanda who said  that the pending data from REG-EDCL, REG-EUCL is needed as the PwC team needs to complete the work on 5-year Business plan for Super ESCO. He further  mentioned the final validation meeting that will be hosted in mid-March, 2023  and he requested stakeholders to provide inputs /insights on the shared report for the completed tasks under project Support to set up Super ESCO in Rwanda. He continued by emphasizing on how we have to build on the recommendations to be taken forward for implementation of the Super ESCO in order for AfDB need to have an official request from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) for Technical Assistance for Implementation of the Super ESCO. AfDB mentioned that they plan to launch an accelerator program for supporting the Super ESCO and Rwanda could be considered under the program if there is an official request from MINECOFIN. AfDB has also expressed interest to receive the business plan for the SuperESCO in Rwanda. GGGI will share the Super ESCO business plan with AfDB for their review and inputs.

Liliane Uwanziga MUPENDE speaking on behalf of the  GGGI Country Representative gave the closing remarks by mentioning the importance of closing this preparatory work of SuperESCO in Rwanda with action plan for implementation and she said how we need to work together on the business plan to make sure it responds to the need of the potential development funders, to policy makers, private sector, regulator, building managers generally all different players in the implementation of energy efficiency initiative to make sure we will come up with business plan that will be adopted for Rwanda context.