Background
Information – UNOPS Sierra Leone Country Office
The Rural Renewable Energy Project (RREP) is a first of its kind in scale and scope in Sierra Leone and regionally in Sub-Saharan Africa, implemented by the Ministry of Energy with support from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and grant funded by DFID. The project will contribute to Sierra Leone’s economic development through increased access to electricity in rural areas while simultaneously reducing Sierra Leone’s future Green House Gas emissions.
This project aims to establish an enabling environment in Sierra Leone for a private sector driven rural mini-grid market and to provide up to 5MW of sustainable renewable power in rural community households, priority institutions, such as Community Health Centers (CHCs), schools, agricultural business centers and other productive uses, as well as chiefdom administrative offices, through solar mini-grids, based on a Public-Private Partnership approach. It is estimated that the RREP will connect approximately 360,000 direct beneficiaries in rural Sierra Leone to electricity, with a further 500,000 indirectly benefitting from access to low carbon electricity.
The implementation of the project is developed around three Work Packages (WP):
Work package 1 / 1+. 6kWp solar photovoltaic (PV) generation plants at 54 Community Health Centres (CHCs) were installed between April and July 2017. These generation plants were then extended into small mini-grids with a capacity between 16kW and 36kW and distribution networks installed which will eventually connect all other public institutions and households in 50 of these communities. All 50 mini-grids are installed and ready for operation as of October 2018.
Work package 2: aims to bring the country’s photovoltaic (PV) power generation capacity up to 5MW by attracting the private sector to invest in the mini-grid market while drawing on the lessons of WP 1/1+. WP2 will install mini-grids in additional 40 communities with >36kW systems (up to max. 200kWp) using sustainable business and delivery models developed by the private sector.
Private sector operators have been selected through a competitive tender process, and will take on operation and maintenance of WP1/1+ mini-grids and co-invest in the development of the WP2 sites. The operators will be responsible for the last mile connection to identified customers and the in-house wiring of customer homes.
Work package 3: provides Technical Assistance (TA) and institutional capacity building to the Ministry of Energy, the Electricity and Water Regulatory Commission, other relevant government agencies as necessary, as well as to private sector companies selected to operate WP1 sites and co-invest in and operate WP2 sites
This position will be home-based with
frequent travel (i.e. one-third of her/his time) within West Africa Countries
under the Ghana
Operational Hub especially Sierra Leone the Project sites/other districts.
Background Information – Job-Specific
UNOPS
has been established in Sierra Leone since 2000 and currently has 53 personnel
in country, operating out of 3 main locations – in Freetown and the other
district Field Offices.
During
the last 15 years, UNOPS has delivered a variety of infrastructure projects
nationwide, particularly in the fields of health and security infrastructure,
and has procured a variety of vehicles, non-medical health related items and
medical equipment.
Current projects include:
- Infrastructure Programme for Isolation Units; Construction of screening and isolation units for government
hospitals under the Ebola Emergency Response Project (EERP) (with funding
from the World Bank) and medical waste management and WASH (with funding
from DFID) in support of the Ministry of Health.
- Procurement of non-health items and services to contribute to the Global Fund Programme in Sierra Leone, for the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
- Construction of the new
Administrative Headquarters of the Transnational Organized Crime Unit
(TOCU) in
Freetown, Sierra Leone for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC)