Castalia developed Energy Master Plans for the Federated States of Micronesia

Castalia has been working closely with the national and state governments, utilities, and other stakeholders to develop State and National Energy Master Plans for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

The Energy Master Plans set out a comprehensive program to achieve the National Vision Statement for Energy: to “improve the life and livelihood of all FSM residents with affordable, reliable and environmentally sound energy”. They aim to enable the electricity utilities in the four States to become environmentally and financially sustainable service providers, delivering good quality energy service to all citizens.

Three main themes have emerged from this analysis:

• By investing in solar PV generation, the FSM states can exceed state and national renewable energy targets, as well as generate significant cost savings compared to the alternative of continuing to rely on diesel for baseload generation. These investments will therefore pay for themselves over time.
• There is a practical model for rolling out over a 5-year period a fleet of mini-grids and stand-alone solar systems across FSM’s many unelectrified communities.
• Over the medium-term, the current level of the electricity tariffs in each of the four states would generally be sufficient to cover all relevant costs for the utilities to implement the Master Plans, including the cost of finance as well as potentially purchasing electricity from Independent Power Producers.