The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Power Africa team has offered to support the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) through a collaborative effort with the Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) to evaluate a broad program of investments in off-grid energy service. The goal of the project is to perform feasibility analyses for several types of off-grid electrification projects including: a) energy systems to provide power service to groups of remote villages; b) conversion diesel generation systems providing power to established islanded generation-distribution systems to renewable energy power sources; c) evaluation of five run-of-river hydroelectric projects for which technical studies have been performed; and d) identification of the power requirement for irrigation at various locations. USAID/Power Africa has approved a proposal and work plan byNRECA International to perform feasibility analyses for these projects, though a project titled Beyond the Grid Ethiopia Project (BTG).
To understand household and businesses monthly expenditure and usage of electricity and non-cooking fuels in these project areas, NRECA will assess willingness to pay (WTP), affordability of conversion from traditional energy sources to commercial electric service; and, opportunities for productive uses of electricity in selected project sites. Survey instruments and a sampling strategy have been developed for this purpose, NRECA now seeks an experienced firm to localize and implement the survey within the selected project households and businesses. The surveys will comprise of approximately 1,600 household surveys, and 400 businesses surveys in rural towns and villages in several Regions in Ethiopia, including: SNNP, Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, among others (see Figure 1 below for project locations). They survey is expected to require up to 6.5 weeks of field time, in addition up to 3 days of classroom training and up to 2 days of field testing. The survey will take place in district villages within each region corresponding to the project locations of the BTG. NRECA expects to implement the survey in February 2017, and complete all field data collection by late-March 2017
The Survey Consulting Firm (Firm) shall work with NRECA’s integrated multi-disciplinary team in Ethiopia. The Firm will participate and take the lead in undertaking the following major activities in relation to the task of data collection and analysis:
The Firm shall provide the following personnel for the survey:
NRECA shall provide all materials (tablets, badges, shirts, caps, battery banks, etc.), as well as provide the transportation for the survey (field vehicles, drivers, fuel). Two field supervisors to oversee the data collection process, in assistance of the Firm’s team, will also participate in the assignment. The field supervisors will be NRECA’s employees who have experience with electricity systems, tablet based data collection, and field data collection.
Deliverables
Addis Ababa as well as selected project sites within various regions of Ethiopia. Travel to various rural villages and towns are required.
The Firmshall provide the following experts with the following required experience and skills: