PROJECTS

Power Sector Advisory, Ghana

The problem

Ghana was losing about 5 percent of its GDP to inadequate and unreliable power supply. Power generation capacity was inadequate while the distribution utilities were losing money. Fossil fuel generation plants were being developed despite Ghana’s abundant and economically viable renewable energy sources.

How we helped

Castalia designed a framework to competitively procure renewable energy. We drafted procurement documents for Ghana’s first solar PV tender, and helped run the tender process for a 20MW project. We also defined a strategy for the distribution utilities to serve their clients reliably with distributed solar PV, batteries, and energy-efficiency technologies. At a sector level, we recommended proceeding with a concession to operate the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as part of the utility’s turnaround program, after analyzing the costs and benefits.

Impact

Ghana’s government and ECG competitively selected the IPP Biotherm for the 20MW solar project, and negotiations are under way. The power utilities agreed to pursue a distributed energy supply strategy. The concession contract for operating ECG was awarded in early 2019 to a consortium led by MERALCO—creating a viable off-taker for privately financed generation projects.