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| − | ==== <font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">Energy situation</span></font> ==== | + | == 1. Situation Analysis == |
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| − | <font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-language: de">Benin’s energy balance of 2006 shows that 59.4 % of the total energy consumption derives from biomass, whereas only 2 % derive from electricity and 38.4 % from oil products. The country solely depends on imports to satisfy its petroleum product demand, while 85% of its electricity consumption is answered by imports from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria. Households account for 48% of the country’s total electricity consumption followed by the institutional sector and the industrial sector, which account for 32% and 24% respectively. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Although in the five past years the final total energy consumption has perceptibly increased, the structure of final energy consumption has not changed.</span></font> <span style="color: #ff0000"><span lang="EN-US">Length of Domestic Transmission and Distribution Lines 5620 km, <span lang="EN-US">Transnational Lines 618 km.</span></span></span>
| + | == 1.1 Energy situation == |
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">'''Number and Length of Power Cuts: '''</span></span></span></span><span><span style="color: #ff0000">Approximately 2800 hours of electricity cuts due to rationing and just over 620 hours of unscheduled cuts. </span></span>
| + | Biomass energy constitutes a major contribution to the national energy mix of Benin. Main sources are the forests in the North of the country. Wood products – particularly charcoal – are transported to the South of the country to supply the urban energy markets. Sawdust and agro-waste are other biomass energy sources of minor importance. According to the Ministry of Energy, 69% of the energy consumed in Benin is based on biomass. The major consumers are households. While in urban areas charcoal is the main fuel, the rural households predominantly use firewood. Wood is also used for artisanal food processing (e.g. fish smoking, bread baking and in restaurants). Some industries generate their electricity from agro-waste. Biomass as a fuel is still available in all parts of the country. However, in urban settings – particular in the South – it has become an expensive commodity. The Kenyan Ceramic Jiko - locally called Nansu - is the major improved charcoal burning stove available in the country. According to a study implemented in the first EnDev phase, 23% of the households in the three major cities in the South have at least one improved stove (out of usually 2 stoves usually used parallel in the homes). |
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">Not clear how many of these unscheduled cuts were due to weather induced equipment failure or simply equipment failure due to the age of the system, vandalism etc. </span>
| + | = Key problems of the energy sector = |
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">In Benin, biomass (firewood and charcoal) remains the dominant source of energy, followed by petroleum products and, to a lesser degree, electricity. </span>
| + | The key problem of the biomass energy sector in Benin is the unsustainable use of the forest resources. This problem has a supply and a demand side. On the supply side, it is first of all not very clear how much forest is left. Studies (FAO, CENATEL) indicated that the area of forest is decreasing every year. There is a loss of about 116.000 ha of forest per year (situation of 2006). However, a new study is currently undertaking under the supervision of the Ministry of Energy to generate an up to date picture of the situation and this study will be the baseline of EnDev 2 for impact analysing on forests. The exploitation of the forest is at large not planned or controlled. This is the result of a lack of capacity in the national authority responsible for this task. On the demand side, due to low purchase power and cooking habits of larger parts of the population, it is impossible to use other fuels than Biomass-energy. Indeed, according to a study of the Ministry of Energy (2003), 88% of rural population and 85% in urban population use firewood for cooking purpose and 13% of rural population and 36% of urban population uses charcoal for cooking purposes (study made on a national level). The current system of biomass energy-use creates increasingly difficulties for urban and rural households because of rising wood fuel prices. In some areas, cooking and grinding has become one of the biggest items on the list of household expenditures. The government is planning projects on alternative energies to biomass-energy but no concrete actions have been undertaken today. The main ―modern energy‖ alternative for cooking is LPG. However, this is expensive and there are already by now shortages in the supply. |
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">The country is 100% dependent on petroleum imports, making it vulnerable to dollar exchange rates and fluctuations in oil prices. Moreover, fluctuations in fossil fuel prices compromise Benin’s domestic capacity to develop its energy services. In 2007 national electrification was 25% overall although rural access was estimated to be less than 2%. (1990:8,6% of households access to Electricity / 2005: 23,2 %, absolut change in percentage +15 %) </span>
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">While Benin has a large hydroelectricity potential only one major hydroelectric site currently functions. Development of over 80 pre-identified sites using micro-hydro applications would help Benin increase its energy resilience. </span>
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">The country has a huge and untapped renewable energy potential. Although with low levels of domestic capital formation and little internal capacity (engineers, technicians etc.) this potential is not being realised. The absence of hazard or siting maps for equipment installation means that Benin’s existing energy infrastructure remains extremely vulnerable to anticipated climate change impacts. While Benin’s National Adaptation Plan of Action notes the necessity of an emergency response plan to deal with the impacts of metrological extreme events, this plan has yet to be developed. </span>
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| − | === <span style="color: #ff0000">Land ownership and participation</span> ===
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">A rural land act has been introduced but there is no law covering urban land ownership. </span>
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| − | <span style="color: #ff0000">Participation Trend toward decentralised governance, but capacity-building is needed </span>
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| − | ==== <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Major challenges:</font></span> ====
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">The energy sector is under constant pressure from different challenges. However, main issues in the energy sector are as follows:</font></span>
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| − | *<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Non-sustainable use of biomass</font></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">: Around 80% of the population depends on the use of biomass for cooking needs. While consumption has increased between 1997 and 2002 at an annual rate of 5 %, forest areas were reduced by 39 %. This results in a massive degradation of forest resources.</font></span>
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| − | *<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: symbol; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-language: de"><span style="mso-list: ignore"><span style="font: 7pt 'times new roman'"> </span></span></span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Low access rate to electricity in rural areas</font></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">: while the national power board SBEE has increased the electrification rate in urban areas from 20 to 52.4 % since 1990, only 2 % of rural areas are connected to the grid. At the same time, around 60% of the population lives in rural areas.</font></span>
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| − | *<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: symbol; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-language: de"><span style="mso-list: ignore"><span style="font: 7pt 'times new roman'"> </span></span></span><font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">Electricity generation constraints</span></font></u><font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-language: de">Since early 2007, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-language: de">Benin has been going through an energy crisis due to curtailed supply from its neighbors Ghana and C</span></font><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'arial unicode ms','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-font-family: calibri; mso-fareast-language: de; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin">o</span><font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-language: de">te d’Ivoire. Lack of operational capacity at the distribution utility SBEE did reinforce the crisis. Following a brief recovery at the end of 2007 after the rainy season, in mid-2008 Benin was again subject to energy shortages. However, <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa">the long term stability in the target region is assured. The reasons are ongoing investments in transmission lines interconnecting North and South Benin, Benin and Togo as well as Benin and Nigeria and the intended extension of generation capacities conducted by Compagnie Electrique du Bénin (CEB). </span></span></font>
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| − | ==== '''<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Main actors</font></span>''' ====
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">There are four main actors in the electricity sector:</font></span>
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| − | *<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: symbol; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-language: de"><span style="mso-list: ignore"><span style="font: 7pt 'times new roman'"> </span></span></span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Communaute Electrique du Benin </font></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">(CEB): CEB is a bipartite utility supplying electricity to national distribution utilities in Benin and Togo (around 85% of generation capacity).</font></span>
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| − | *<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Societe Beninoise d’Energie Electrique </font></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">(SBEE): Responsible for electricity distribution and local generation through diesel generators (around 13% of generation capacity).</font></span>
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| − | *<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: symbol; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: symbol; mso-fareast-language: de"><span style="mso-list: ignore"><span style="font: 7pt 'times new roman'"> </span></span></span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Agence Beninoise d’Electrification Rurale et de Maitrise d’Energie </font></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">(ABERME): responsible for rural energy supply (established in 2004).</font></span>
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| − | *<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Ministere de l'Energie et de L'Eau (MEE)</font></span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">: responsible for the national energy policy and coordination of the activities in the energy sector.</font></span>
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| − | ==== '''<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Policy framework</font></span>''' ====
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">In order to tackle the challenges in the energy sector the government of Benin has formulated the <u>Policy and Strategy Document for the Development of the Electricity Sector</u> that provides the long term vision and the strategy of the country by 2025. The overall energy strategy can be summarised as follows: (i) strengthening the legal and institutional framework; (ii) ensuring reliable electricity supply to support economic activities and achieve the national energy security and an efficient energy delivery system with an optimal energy resource mix; (iii) increasing energy access to population through new power generation plants, regional interconnection and rural electrification; (iv) promoting private investments in the power sector by creating the enabling market environment for private sector participation; and (v) promoting energy efficiency in all sector.</font></span>
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Regarding <u>rural electrification</u>, it aims at providing 150 villages p.a. with access to electricity in order to achieve a rural electrification rate of 30–40 % by 2015. Furthermore, promoting the dissemination of improved stoves and other renewable domestic energy sources are additional objectives of the strategy to tackle the energy challenges in rural areas.</font></span>
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| − | <font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">In the run of the <u>energy sector reform</u>, which gained considerable momentum in recent months (mainly due to growing World Bank interest in the sector), the establishment of a <u>Rural Electrification Fund </u>is being discussed. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: en-gb; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">It shall incorporate a concession model with minimum subsidy bidding. The Fund is intended to bundle investments of donor agencies designated to rural electrification. Rural regions covered by the SBEE grid will also be concessioned<span class="MsoPageNumber"><span style="font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'"> (15 concess</span></span>ions in total). However, basic features of this instrument are yet unclear such as regulation, payment authorisation and tariffing. Experiences in Senegal and Mali, furthermore, expose a very limited interest of private enterprises to compete for such funds. Concerning the national and even regional private sector, the mobilisation of financial resources is less an impediment than lacking capacities to implement privately run electricity concessions in Benin.</span></font>
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| − | <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: en-gb; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><font face="Arial">The reform process goes along with a shift in responsibilities for rural electrification from SBEE to ABERME. It is, furthermore, planned to split up SBEE into an asset management and a distribution management company.</font></span>
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| − | <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: en-gb; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><font face="Arial"></font></span>
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| − | ==== <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">'''<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: en-us">Key problems hampering access to electricity</span>'''</span> ====
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Although the Government of Benin clearly defined a strategy for rural electrification, the objective of achieving a rural electrification rate of 40% in 2015 is highly ambitious due to the following reasons:</font></span>
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| − | <font face="Arial"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">SBEE is far from being capable of achieving these goals due to <u>insufficient financial capacities</u>: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">SBEE’s indebtedness is 9 times as high as its turnover and financial losses are increasing continuously, since the supply costs per kWh exceed the retail price; not only but mainly in areas provided by diesel generators</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de">.</span></font>
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">In addition to the financial bottleneck, one important reason is the <u>lack of knowledge about low-cost alternatives </u>to the business as usual scenario of grid extension. This scenario was designed originally for urban areas based on high technical “EDF” standards that are inappropriate for rural areas.</font></span>
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de"><font face="Arial">Furthermore, for political reasons, SBEE focuses on the <u>extension of the grid to previously non-electrified regions</u>, instead of increasing the number of connected households in proximity to the grid.</font></span>
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| − | <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: en-us; mso-fareast-font-family: 'times new roman'; mso-fareast-language: de; mso-bidi-language: ar-sa">Although some responsibilities for rural electrification have been shifted to ABERME, the agency proved to be incapable of driving the electrification process. <u>Lack of capacity</u> is the main reason, especially the lack of engineering expertise. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span>
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| | [[Category:Benin]] | | [[Category:Benin]] |
| | [[Category:Country Situation]] | | [[Category:Country Situation]] |
