ENEA Consulting ● 89 rue Réaumur, 75002 Paris ● +33 (0) 1 82 83 83 83 ● www.enea-consulting.com

10-year commitment to energy access A large diversity of ENEA Access projects

Overview of the ENEA Access program

Definition of a development program for domestic biogas (Rwanda) Evaluation and scale-up of domestic biogas program (Rwanda)

Developing mini-grids for sustainable energy access (Zambia)

Operational and strategic support to the scale-up of “last mile distribution” activities (Kenya)

Establishing production and distribution of biomass pellets (Kenya)

Scaling-up the last-mile distribution of solar home systems (Tanzania)

Technical support for a bamboo-to-electricity project (Rwanda)

Social impact assessment of solar kits business (Uganda)

New pico-solar lamp launch and commercial and distribution strategy definition (Zambia)

Analysis of the solar phone charging value chain (Tanzania)

Energy access solution definition for rural areas, from solar kiosk to mini-grid? (Togo)

60+ projects 2,200 + man days

10-year commitment to energy access

Project Profile

Client: Vétérinaires sans Frontières-Belgium

Year: 2013

Length: 4 months (5 weeks on the field)

Location: Rwanda

Contributor: Loïc Rakotojaona

Definition of a development program for domestic biogas in Rwanda

CONTEXT

In Rwanda, farmers are facing land scarcity, which leads to insufficient farming products and hinders food security. In addition, the deforestation caused by human activities also threatens the sustainability of agricultural production. The Rwandan government has implemented several measures to alleviate these issues, including the National Domestic Biogas Program and the “One cow per poor family” campaign.

Vétérinaires Sans Frontières – Belgium (VSF-B) is a NGO whose objective is to tackle poverty and food insecurity by helping local population care for livestock and improve production. In that respect, VSF-B wishes to develop domestic biogas projects in order to provide farmers with a clean and sustainable energy.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

Despite a favorable context for domestic biogas development, the dissemination is still limited in Rwanda for two reasons:

Lack of awareness and information among farmers

Prohibitive biodigester costs for local households

ENEA’s recommendations thus focus on the awareness raising and information diffusion among farmers. Exchanges with potential beneficiaries shall be favored, and “bottom-up” approaches shall be developed instead of “top-down” approaches. Moreover, suitable financing schemes (i.e. microcredit and subsidies) will facilitate a larger diffusion of domestic biogas units. Finally, further local partnerships shall be developed in order to maximize the number of potential beneficiaries. ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

ENEA has been asked to support VSF-B in the formulation of a domestic biogas project in Rwanda. The general purpose of the study is to assess the potential of domestic biogas in the Rwandese farming context :

Feedbacks on existing domestic biogas projects in developing countries

Assessment of the local context, and field evaluation through interviews with political and institutional representatives, and actual and potential beneficiaries.

CONTRIBUTOR

Loïc Rakotojaona

Loïc started his career at ENEA in 2008 working on techo-economic feasibility studies in exploration-production. He is now a technical advisor on issues linked to industrial processes and leads technical and strategic advisory consulting assignments.

For more information about this project, see publication Domestic Biogas Development in Developing Countries

Project Profile

Client: Practical Action

Year: 2015

Length: 4 months (2 weeks on the field)

Location: Zambia

Contributor: Mathieu Bordeleau; Luc Payen

Developing mini-grids for sustainable energy access in Zambia

CONTEXT

Practical Action, a UK based NGO, has been implementing mini-grids in Southern Africa for more than 20 years and has extensive experience of setting up and running small-scale projects.

Practical Action’s business model has primarily been based on grant-funded schemes, rarely involving the private sector. The fast changing patterns of financing and funding in international development require new business models that make scalability and financial sustainability possible.

Thus Practical Action would like to develop a more ambitious proposal to develop mini-grids that could be replicated in Zambia, where only 5% of households are connected to the grid.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

Based on the information collected and lessons learnt from the field research, ENEA built sustainable and scalable mini-grid business models.

Recommendations were also made to roll-out a mini-grid development program in Zambia, which includes:

Participation of private sector

Clustering, load support and cost-reflective tariffs

Inovative funding schemes

Legal and financial support plus technical assessment

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

ENEA supported Practical Action to strengthen its capacity in business planning methodology.

ENEA combined its internal expertise and an exploratory field research with Practical Action in order to build sustainable and scalable mini-grid business models. ENEA conducted a 2-week long trip in Zimbabwe and Zambia to study the existing mini-grid schemes and to meet relevant participants (government officers, development agencies, financial institutions, etc.). ENEA also visited isolated hydropower mini-grid projects in both countries.

For more information about this project, see publication Developing Minigrids in Zambia: How to build sustainable and scalable business models?

CONTRIBUTORS

Mathieu Bordeleau

Since he joined ENEA’s team in 2011, Mathieu contributed to the development of ENEA’s expertise on innovative solutions for electric systems, including grid-connected and off-grid systems. He left ENEA in 2016 for news entrepreneurial activities.

Luc Payen Luc joined ENEA in 2011 to participate in the development of the new energy technologies activity. One of his fields of interest is energy markets and their short-term and long-term evolutions. He is now Manager and supervise complex consulting projects.

Project Profile

Client: Vétérinaires sans Frontières-Belgium

Year: 2015

Length: 4 months (2 weeks on the field)

Location: Rwanda

Contributor: Jacque de Bucy; Fabiola Graveaud

Evaluation and scale-up of EVE project – domestic biogas in Rwanda

CONTEXT

ENEA provided to Vétérinaires Sans Frontières – Belgium (VSF-B) in early 2013 on the identification and analysis of opportunities for the implementation of biogas systems in rural areas in Rwanda.

As of August 2015, VSF-B’s EVE (Energie Verte & Elevage) showed promising results with 43 operational bio-digesters disseminated, almost halfway to its plan to build 100 biodigesters by the end of 2016.

VSF-B would like to collect and analyze returns on experience of the first phase of the project and to identify opportunities on institutional level to scale-up for 2017-2021.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

VSF-B wishes to benefit from an external evaluation of the project and its impacts on beneficiaries, and prepare a scale-up for 2017-2021.

Definition and evaluation of the expected socio-economic impact and performance of the project through extensive field survey and research

Identification of the challenges and opportunities for project implementation scale-up through interviews with partner organizations, local administrations, microfinance institutions and local farmers.

CONTRIBUTORS

Jacques de Bucy

Jacques joined ENEA in 2011 to work on studies concerning technologies and processes in the field of energy efficiency, bioenergies, and CO2 capture and reuse. He has also developed a strong expertise on energy access.

Fabiola Graveaud

Fabiola joined ENEA in 2012 to develop environmental and social performance measurement tools and indicators for energy access projects. She is currently managing strategic consulting projects. Fabiola currently works as director at ENEA’s Paris head office.

ENEA concluded that biogas activities of the EVE project were successful thanks o an efficient approach combining sensitization and financial and technical support. ENEA envisages that there us a significant potential to scale up the project if subsidies from REG could be maintained

In the end of the project, ENEA provided to VSF-B a thorough evaluation of the project performance, challenges and social-economic impact. ENEA also set up an ambitious but realistic target for biodigester installations at a 5-year horizon.

Martin Steel, VSF-B Regional Coordinator “Thank you for all the high quality work done during the 2 weeks in Rwanda, for the improved perspective it offers to help innovate in our approach to foster biodigester adoption among future project beneficiaries, and for the operational recommendations to improve and scale-up our program

Project Profile

Client: LivelyHoods/iSmart

Year: 2015

Length: 2 months (3 weeks on the field)

Location: Kenya

Contributor: Damien Wiedmer; Inès Galichon

Operational and strategic support to the scale-up of “last mile distribution” activities in Kenya

CONTEXT

LivelyHoods is a Kenya-based not-for-profit social enterprise. The mission of LivelyHoods is to create job opportunities for women and youth in urban slums so they can work their way out of poverty and actualize their potential.

LivelyHoods created a social entreprise, iSmart, which employs women and youth to sell clean cook stoves, solar lamps, and other household products door-to-door to underserved, base of the pyramid consumers in slums. iSmart is currently operating 5 stores and is now targeting to open 25 to 30 new stores all over Kenya in the next 3 to 5 years.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

Based on extensive research and analysis, ENEA identified more than 15 areas of improvement to increase iSmart’s performance.

ENEA also made strategic recommendations that would help LivelyHoods scale-up its activities, particularly outside Nairobi. ENEA produced a final report which includes recommendations on current processes between the headquarter and the store branches, as well as the potential lines of approach concerning LivelyHoods’s scale-up strategy.

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

Conduct a mapping of the necessary processes to:

Open efficiently new stores

Optimize the management of the stores network Develop operational tools to:

Capitalize key information for iSmart concerning all these processes

Ease the reporting of key data (results from surveys, marketing tests, etc.)

Help to decide which is the better scale-up strategy and to select the best locations for opening new stores

CONTRIBUTORS

Damien Wiedmer

Damien joined ENEA in 2009. He supervises technical and strategic advisory consulting projects and is involved as an expert in complex assignments. Damien currently works as manager at ENEA’s Paris head office.

Inès Galichon Inès joined ENEA in 2013 as consultant in environmental and social performance. She has developed an expertise in energy access. She is also in charge of the development of ENEA energy access pro-bono program.

Tania Laden, Co-founder and Executive Director: “Working with ENEA consultants was a pivotal decision for our organization in order to develop strategies and tools that will enable our growth and sustainability. They were professional, efficient, experienced, and flexible, which is the kind of help we needed given our small budget and big vision.”

Project Profile

Client: EcoZoom

Year: 2015

Length: 3 months (2 weeks on the field)

Location: Kenya

Contributor: Pierre Lelong; Eliéta Carlu

Establishing production and distribution of biomass pellets in Kenya

CONTEXT

EcoZoom is an American social enterprise based in Kenya and certified B Corporation that makes clean burning cookstoves accessible and affordable to people worldwide.

EcoZoom’s new project aims to assess the feasibility of setting up in-country production and distribution of biomass pellet fuel to replace current biomass usage in the domestic market as well as in the industrial and commercial markets.

Security of feedstock supply, production inputs and the economics of last mile distribution have been so far identified as key factors that will influence the feasibility of the business model for pellet production and distribution.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

ENEA helped EcoZoom to assess the current status of the project and provided recommendations to for next steps.

In order to collect data and information, ENEA conducted a field trip in Kenya to meet with EcoZoom team and interview stakeholders. Based on the result from the field trip, ENEA performed model analysis to identify EcoZoom’s suitable business model.

CONTRIBUTORS

Pierre Lelong

Pierre joined ENEA in 2014. He currently works on technical and strategic consulting projects. During his time at ENEA, Pierre has worked for utilities, OEMs, national & international public authorities and investors. Pierre currently works in ENEA’s Melbourne office.

Eliéta Carlu Eliéta started working with ENEA as a consultant in 2011. She carries out consultancy assignments on bioenergies and energy efficiency in industry. Eliéta currently works in ENEA’s Melbourne office.

ENEA identified the break-even points and profitability conditions for EcoZoom.

Furthermore, based on the result from field trip and model analysis, ENEA made strategic recommendations for EcoZoom on both production (feedstock characteristics, feedstock supply, storage… ) and distribution line (marketing, comportment changing, last-mile distribution) in order to boost its biomass pellets project and ensure profitability.

Project Profil

Client: Eternum Energy

Year: 2016

Length: 2 months (2 weeks on the field)

Location: Tanzania

Contributor: Loïc Rakotojaona

Scaling-up the last-mile distribution of solar home systems

CONTEXT

Eternum Energy designs and develops small solar systems, known as Solaris systems, for low income families and village entrepreneurs in Africa. Eternum distributes and installs its solar kits in Tanzania through a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) lease-to-own system, allowing their end-users to pay for renewable electricity through affordable regular payments and own their solar kit after 1 to 3 years.

Displaying a steady growth in Tanzania since January 2016, Eternum Energy has reached 300 active clients in August 2016 and is now scaling up. In this context, Eternum Energy is seeking support for the definition of a realistic scale-up strategy, aiming to reach several thousands of clients in the coming years.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

ENEA provided Eternum Energy with a customizable business plan and advices on its organization and business processes after scale-up.

Eternum Energy plans to regularly use the delivered business plan and scale-up model, internally to adjust its scale-up strategy, and externally for fund raising.

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

ENEA’s work has been field-oriented with strong interactions with Eternum Energy’s team in Tanzania:

Field trip in Tanzania aiming to collect operational data and have a better understanding of Eternum’s organization and business processes (2 weeks)

Definition of a scale-up model, including growth projection, sales and after-sales team sizing, and logistic aspects

Modeling of economics (PAYG revenues, HR costs, logistic costs, etc…)

Sensitivity analyses and identification of key parameters for the scale-up strategy

CONTRIBUTOR

Loïc Rakotojaona

Loïc started his career at ENEA in 2008 working on techo-economic feasibility studies in exploration-production. He is now a technical advisor on issues linked to industrial processes and leads technical and strategic advisory consulting assignments.

Thibault Lesueur, Co-founder & CMO “Through the delivered advises during the mission, we have been able to better manage some resources such as batteries, which led to a notable positive impact from the next month and thus allowed us to reduce our monthly capital requirement. Alongside such finding, several lever effects have been identified or confirmed to optimize the impact we deliver upon the level of resources we engage.”

Project Profile

Client: International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR)

Year: 2012

Length: 2 months

Location: Rwanda

Contributor: Guillaume Kerlero de Rosbo

Technical support for a bamboo-to-electricity project in Rwanda

CONTEXT

Biomass energy is the oldest and most widespread energy source in Africa. Its potential contribution to poverty reduction in these countries is important, while it is often a key contributor to deforestation and an important source of greenhouse gas emissions from the region.

The International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to poverty and environmental sustainability using bamboo and rattan. INBAR is currently developing a project to produce electricity from bamboo in Rwanda. For the first time, access to sustainable energy based on bamboo resources has been included in the project, with ENEA’s support.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

ENEA provided technical support and project management to help INBAR evaluate the feasibility of the project and choose the technologies to fit with the project’s objectives and local context.

This study included a detailed analysis of combustion, gasification and pyrolysis technologies as well as associated power-generation engines.

The technologies’ integration within its environment, electricity use and associated business models are also addressed, as well as the needed quantities in bamboo crop to meet power supply objectives.

ENEA’s work made it possible to select the best technological path and options to be implemented in INBAR’s project as well as to initiate contacts with several potential partners.

More generally, this work enabled INBAR to better understand decentralized energy production and energy access issues.

This common experience between INBAR and ENEA Consulting should lead to further collaboration, for instance through a field mission in 2012 aiming at helping project managers in the evaluation of local energy needs, as well as on operational project building.

CONTRIBUTOR

Guillaume Kerlero de Rosbo

Guillaume joined ENEA in 2011 and currently works as director in ENEA’s Paris head office. He manages and participates in assignments ranging from strategic advisory consulting (R&D roadmap definition) to technical and organizational support for setting up projects, and support for start-up development.

For more information about this project, see publication Electrical valorization of Bamboo in Africa

Project Profile

Client: BBOXX

Year: 2013

Length: 2 months (2 weeks on the field)

Location: Uganda

Contributor: Mathieu Bordeleau

Social impact assessment of solar kits business in Uganda

CONTEXT

85% of the population in Uganda doesn’t have access to electricity. People are well aware of solar technology and many foreign solar players are already established. The main hurdle is to crack the physical access of the solar products around the country and the financing to the end customers.

BBOXX is a designer and manufacturer of smart solar solutions for the developing world (solar kits). To internationalize the sales, BBOXX uses a franchising model where local partners have exclusive representation of the brand, vision and products.

BBOXX launched its franchise in Uganda in April 2012, and it’s now working on developing its distribution and business development strategies for the coming years.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

The assessment showed a significant improvement of customers livelihood after purchasing BBOXX’s solar kits, which include:

Customers’ feeling of a radical change in domestic comfort and improvement of social cohesion.

Improvement of security conditions, notably thanks to outside lighting.

Improvement of indoor air quality, combined with a decrease of breathing diseases.

The assessment also pointed out the economic impact of BBOXX. As customers benefit from various expenses savings thanks to a free energy source, they also develop new business activities, as phone charging, providing them with new revenues. However, the upfront payment of the solar kit remains a major obstacle for most of the potential customers of BBOXX.

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

BBOXX has asked ENEA to assess the social impacts of its activities in the Uganda market. The mission consisted of two main phases:

The upstream phase (2 weeks) : ENEA has built a methodology and a preliminary version of a social impact assessment tool.

The field evaluation (2 weeks) : ENEA has conducted surveys and interviews with the project key stakeholders in Uganda.

CONTRIBUTOR

Mathieu Bordeleau

Since he joined ENEA’s team in 2011, Mathieu contributed to the development of ENEA’s expertise on innovative solutions for electric systems, including grid-connected and off-grid systems. He left ENEA in 2016 for news entrepreneurial activities.

Project Profile

Client: SolarAid / SunnyMoney

Year: 2016

Length: 3 months

Location: Zambia

Contributor: Madeleine Post-Legendre, Nicolas Bourdel

New pico-solar lamp launch and commercial and distribution strategy definition for Zambia

CONTEXT

SolarAid / SunnyMoney is a private-NGO hybrid company that sells solar lamps and contributes to the energy access of the poorest. After being the leader on its market for five years, SunnyMoney Zambia is facing an increased competition from specialized brand or low quality imitations and is loosing some market shares.

SM Zambia bet on its new SM100, a very low-cost production pico-solar lamp (5 USD), to revive sales and reach new market segments. To that end, SM Zambia called ENEA to help them on the product launch and the readjustment of the commercial, marketing and distribution strategy.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

ENEA’s approach was to associate an internal diagnosis of the existing strategy and processes of SM with an analysis of the environment (market, competition, stake-holders’ eco-system).

Internal diagnosis : provide an external view of the actual commercial and distribution strategy thanks to ENEA tools and a series of interviews

Field investigations : push forward quantitative information about the market potential of the SM100 thanks to a market study (175 people contacted), and qualitative information about the SM products distribution thanks to the interviews

Recommendations: identify concretes recommendations for the launch of the SM100 (development, pricing, marketing) and structural orientations for the global strategy of Sunny Money

ENEA synthesized in a report all the data collected on field and a series of recommendations for the launch of the SM100 and for the global strategy of SunnyMoney.

ENEA ensured to rank them according to their time scale (long term/short term) and their strategic interest. SM Zambia will rely on this report when dealing with the SolarAid direction about new orientations.

All along the project, and in particular during the on-field phase, ENEA interacted with SM Zambia responsible in order to co-build the recommendations as far as possible and to ensure their feasibility.

CONTRIBUToRS

Madeleine Post-Legendre

Madeleine joined ENEA in 2015. She works on strategic advisory consulting assignments for various actors; in particular strategic positioning projects taking into account a technico-economic approach and regulatory issues, environmental performance and societal acceptance.

Nicolas Bourdel

Nicolas joined ENEA in 2015 as part of the project team, with business development responsibilities. Prior to joining ENEA, Nicolas was also an entrepreneur. He launched and managed several start-ups, including Jumia Cameroun (Rocket Internet group).

Project Profile

Client: GVEP International (Global Village Energy Partnership

Year: 2013

Length: 1 month (2 weeks on the field)

Location: Tanzania

Contributor: Thibault Lesueur

Analysis of the solar phone charging value chain in Tanzania

CONTEXT

In rural Lake Victoria region, only 6% of the population have access to electricity. Thus people have to travel for hours to charge a mobile phone they mostly need for business or money transfer (for 93% of users). To save up time and resources they need a closer access to phone charging services: an access micro local entrepreneurs could provide...

GVEP International is a British NGO looking for providing a broader access to energy through entrepreneurship support. With the CARE2 programme (Capital Access to Renewable Energy Enterprises), GVEP plans to help entrepreneurs acquire the equipment they need to expand their business to phone charging activities as well as strengthening their business capacities.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

The value chain characterization allowed GVEP to better understand the value chain barriers and opportunities. It allowed the NGO to identify upstream levers that could have an impact on entrepreneurs’ ability to purchase the necessary equipment and succeed in managing a viable business.

Among others, ENEA Consulting identified and characterized the following levers:

Action plan to lower money lenders’ fears and barriers in working with micro entrepreneurs.

Action plan to reinforce small retailers’ capacities and therefore foster positive ripple effects on entrepreneurs they serve.

Recommendation to pay a specific attention to integrated solar kits’ positive/negative impacts onto micro entrepreneurs.

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

GVEP asked ENEA Consulting to analyze the solar phone charging value chain in order to address recommendations in terms of positioning for GVEP. The mission consisted of two main phases:

Interview phase: ENEA Consulting designed surveys it administrated to every actor typologies during a filed investigation.

Value chain characterization: ENEA Consulting has conducted business model analysis and proposed programme’s improvements to better increase GVEP impacts.

CONTRIBUTOR

Thibault Lesueur

Thibault joint ENEA in 2011 to work on strategic positionning and social acceptance issues related to the energy sector. He left ENEA in 2014 to create a Eternum Energy Solaris, a solar home systems social business based in Tanzania.

For more information about this project, see publication At the bottom of the phone charging value chain…

Project Profile

Client: Benoolend

Year: 2016

Length: 6 months (1 week on the field)

Location: Togo

Contributor: Inès Galichon, Luc Payen

Energy access solution definition for rural areas in Togo, from solar kiosk to mini-grid?

CONTEXT

Benoolend is a French startup developing an energy access solution, meant to be implemented first in Togo. Benoolend has been created to address the funding issue of energy access. Energy kiosk and minigrids are options considered by Benoolend for this energy access solution.

In this context, Benoolend asked ENEA pro bono assistance to develop the concept of the Benoolend solution and implement it in the Benoolend strategy. The objective of the joint project between Benoolend and ENEA is thus to identify the needs of rural population in villages in Togo and build the best solution for these needs.

MAIN RESULTS AND LEARNINGS

ENEA CONSULTING’S MISSION

After an initial literature analysis, the project team organized field visits in Togo, where Benoolend has a local partner, ETD. ETD is an NGO working on local governance and rural economic develop with the “ESOP” model (local agro-processing cooperatives). Field survey was carried out to assess the needs of these villages and size the first solution of Benoolend.

Finally, the project team focused on Benoolend solution and business model.

A final report outlines some of the main findings of this work including key learnings of the field survey and focuses on the energy kiosk business model.

Field survey empiric results analysis to assess rural villages energy needs and willingness to pay of potential clients

Dimensioning of the services/products offer of Benoolend solar kiosk solution: analysis of the highest added-value offer (cold, internet, mobile phone charging, etc).

A strategic reflection around energy kiosk has been carried out; ENEA investigated the possibilities of developing the model on the long term. Final key findings and recommendations have nurtured Benoolend’s positioning and investors presentations.

CONTRIBUTEURS

Inès Galichon

Inès joined ENEA in 2013 as consultant in environmental and social performance. She has developed an expertise in energy access. She is also in charge of the development of ENEA energy access pro-bono program.

Luc Payen Luc joined ENEA in 2011 to participate in the development of the new energy technologies activity. One of his fields of interest is energy markets and their short-term and long-term evolutions. He is now Manager and supervise complex consulting projects.

ENEA Consulting ● 89 rue Réaumur, 75002 Paris ● +33 (0) 1 82 83 83 83 ● www.enea-consulting.com