81306155-Expert Services on On-Grid and Off-Grid Regulation and Market Development and Policy Catalyst

The service entails the rapid mobilisation of cutting-edge advisory services supplied by the contractor through the deployment of dedicated key experts working together with pools of short-term experts. Through the assignments, the contractor will contribute to the achievement of GET.transform objectives. The requested service within this contract can be separated mainly into two parts: I. Standing experts for contract and technical support mainly responsible for project management and defining specific technical assignments. II. Technical support experts and flexible pools of experts, senior and with regional expertise who are mainly responsible for implementing advisory services on the following topics: On-Grid Regulation and Market Development, Off-Grid Regulation and Market Development, and Policy Catalyst. The contractor will be actively involved in the following overarching tasks: - Contract management. - Scoping and conceptualisation of new activities. - Support in the standardisation of the GET.transform service offer. - Support in developing Energy Sector Transformation Outlooks (ESTO). - Cross-cutting support to GET.transform. - Gender Considerations. The core technical components for the services are: 1) On-Grid Regulation and Market Development: - Policy, legislation, regulation, governance, and renewable energy on-grid market, analysing outcomes of existent energy plans as well as energy stakeholders" views and electricity system requirements. Identify the desired power system transformation, the market mechanisms to be employed and build a strategy containing recommendations for addressing the gaps and challenges, as well as a roadmap for implementation.

- Assessment of power market design reforms and desired paths of implementation. Solutions to achieve an equilibrium between market participants: power producers, utilities, consumers, transmission and distribution (T&D) operators, among others, depending on each country/region. Develop the necessary strategies, plans, technical assistance and effectively support decision-making and implementation of reforms and market mechanisms to unlock commercial relationships for electricity and respective energy services between power market participants.

- Renewable Energy Auctions: plan, provide technical assistance and effectively support the execution of one or more successful renewable energy competitive procurement program.

- Renewable Energy Distributed Generation: support the development of regulations that provide a market-driven uptake of DG. 2) Off-Grid Regulation and Market Development: - Electrification plans, in line with strategic objectives of governments, to decide between electrification options (grid extension, mini-grids, or off-grid systems) considering domestic demand, socio-economic activities, and load forecasts. Incorporating Productive Use of Energy (PUE) value chains in electrification planning is key in achieving viability in mini-grid business models and increasing the socio-economic impact of electricity access.

- Mini-grid framework: include policies, regulations, and support mechanisms that define the institutional framework for mini-grids including clarifying the rural electrification approach, project ownership model, type of financing, and tariff methodology. They should address the needs of different stakeholders including customers (affordability, safety, accessibility) and private sector and investors (stability, transparency, cost-effectiveness, comprehensive, accessibility, light-handed and simplified).

- Mini-grid public incentives: interactions and coordination with development financing institutions and mini-grid funding windows are sought to align the policy and regulatory framework with procurement procedures and to allow for sustainability and project realisation. Public procurement procedures / initiatives implementation to allow for market participation and to stimulate private sector investment These procurement mechanisms typically involve grant or subsidy. Competitive procurement procedures and auctions are based on projects that have either the lowest service charge, lowest tariff, lowest weighted average cost of capital, or lowest grant. Other procurement procedures are rolling grant funds with fixed grant per connection (selection based on who can meet connection rates etc) through Results Based Finance (RBF) or Performance Based Grants (PBG). 3) Policy Catalyst: The contractor is tasked with the overall management and coordination of the Policy Catalyst which shall include the following: - Develop and drive standardisation of processes at Policy Catalyst level to ensure the same conceptual logic, methodology, templates, and communication strategy. - Provide administrative and technical backstopping and coordinate with GET.transform and short-term experts. - Support communication efforts and development of partnerships for implementation of Policy Catalyst.