REOI-DEVELOPMENT OF GUIDELINES FOR REGULATING CROSS-BORDER POWER TRADE | Firms Consultancy

1. The Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), through the African Development Bank (AfDB), has received a grant from the African Development Fund towards the cost of the EAPP Institutional Capacity Building Project and intends to apply part of the agreed amount for this grant to payments under the contract for THE DEVELOPMENT OF GUIDELINES FOR REGULATING CROSS-BORDER POWER TRADE, PROCEDURES FOR MARKET MONITORING, ACCESS RULES AND SANCTION REGULATION FRAMEWORK FOR THE INDEPENDENT REGULATORY BOARD (IRB) OF EASTERN AFRICA POWER POOL (EAPP).

2. The Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) is an inter-governmental organization established in 2005 to coordinate cross-border power trade and grid interconnection among nations of the Eastern Africa region. The EAPP comprises thirteen member countries including Burundi, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Council of Ministers (COM) is the supreme governing body of EAPP that provides policy, strategic guidance, and oversight. The EAPP’s mandate is to provide efficient coordination of power production, transmission, and trade in the region; and to facilitate, the development of a regional electricity market. The Independent Regulatory Board (IRB) has its origins in 2005. The Governments of the Eastern African Countries on February 24, 2005, signed a memorandum of understanding, the Inter-Governmental Memorandum of Understanding (IGMOU), to establish the EAPP, one organ of which is the IRB. On January 20, 2012, the IRB was formally established through a resolution of the 5th COM meeting and decided to be co-located at EAPP’s General Secretariat in Addis Ababa for the foreseeable future until the conditions are deemed appropriate.

The IRB board in its 5th Annual Board Meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda from 15th to 16th December 2022, resolved that the seat of the IRB Secretariat be in Kampala, Uganda. Following this, the 16th COM meeting held in Kampala, Uganda on February 3, 2023, ratified the seat of the IRB Secretariat to be located in Kampala, Uganda. The current Empowering legal instruments for IRB are the IGMOU and the IRB Articles of Agreement signed by member countries. The Independent Regulatory Board (IRB) is EAPP’s organ for regional regulation and reports directly to the COM. The IRB is composed of the heads of the national regulatory authorities/ commissions in each member country.

The expected duration of the assignment is seven (7) months. A tentative implementation schedule is provided ToR; however, consultants can review and propose an alternative schedule which will contain revised activities and expected timelines during technical proposal submission. The estimated level of effort is 5 person months.