In October 2006, 5th and 6th
, an inter Lower Mekong Delta countries seminar was held in
Phnom Penh to present the experiences learned during
the action and to inform international financial organisations,
operators and investors of the opportunity of financing sustainable
DRE programs in these countries.
The seminar gathered about 80 participants from 10 different
nationalities, and representing project partners, provincial
and national authorities, private companies, investors:
• Fondation Energies pour le Monde (Fondem);
• Fraunhofer ISE;
• Vietnamese Center for Renewable Energy and Rural Development;
• Department of Energy Technique within the Cambodian
Ministry of Energy;
• Rural Electrification Department, within the Lao Ministry
of Energy and Mines;
• National decision makers in charge of rural electrification
of the Ministries of Energy
 of Laos,
Vietnam and Cambodia;
• Representatives of the provincial authorities of 4
others provinces in each country
(Vietnam,
Laos and Cambodia);
• International cooperation agencies and International
Financing Institutions located
in Lower
Mekong;
• Private operators and investors involved in rural
electrification and/or renewable
energies.
The
agenda and the list of participants are avalaible on the Download
page.
The
main objectives of the seminar were to:
• highlight the results of the action, as well as to
emphasize the needs of energy
actors to
plan and implement DRE programs.
• make experts and professionals aware of the design
of projects and strategies for
energy planning.
• gather Lower Mekong decision makers with private actors
to reinforce cooperation
as well as
the private / public cooperation.
• exchange experiences from European and Lower Mekong
experts.
• inform International Financing Institutions, private
investors and operators
about bankable
DRE programs opportunities in Lower Mekong.
The
first day of the seminar consisted in a plenary session to:
• hear presentations on renewable energy and rural electrification
policy from the
national
representatives of Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam;
• hear presentations from international investors looking
for renewable energy
projects;
• receive feed back and the points of view of private
companies that are active in the
sector in
the 3 countries;
• present Delta PRO RES methodology and results, and
launch discussions on the
proposed
projects for Kampong Cham, Luang Prabang and Binh Phuoc.
All the presentations of the plenary session are on-line:
• Rural
electrification by Renewable Energy in Kingdom of Cambodia,
by Mr. Toch
Sovanna,Renewable
Energy Office, Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (DET).
• Rural
Electrification and Renewabe Energy policy situation in Lao
PDR, by Mr.
Anousak Phongsavath,
Department of Electricity, Ministry of Energy and Mines (DOE).
• Rural
Electriication and Renewable Energy development in Vietnam,
by dr. Le Hoang
Thi To, Centre
for Renewable Energy and Rural development (RERD)
• Solar
Home Systems market application in Vietnam, by Mr. Tran
Thanh Danh, SELCO
Vietnam
• Biomass
gasification for Rural Electrification and power supply in
Cambodia, by Erik
Middelink,
SME Cambodia / SME Renewable Energy Ltd
• Electrification
Off the grid in Lao PDR, by Andy Schroeter, Sunlabob
•
Public private cooperation for sustainable rural electrification
– different perspectives
according to DEG and KfW experiences, by Mr. Bernd Parting
(DEG) and Long Sophat
(KfW)
• Investment
strategy for scaling up rural electrification, by Bas
Rekvelt, Triodos
International
Fund Management
• Delta
PRO RES methodology, by Mr. Kevin Mozas, Fondation Energies
pour le Monde
(FONDEM)
• Methodology
for PV hybrid village mini grids, by Dr. Matthias Vetter,
Fraunhofer
Institutefor
Solar Energy Systems
• Delta
PRO RES proposal of sustainable and regional rural electrification
program
based on renewable energy in the province of Kampong Cham,
Cambodia, by Kevin
Mozas, Fondation
Energies pour le Monde (FONDEM)
• Delta
PRO RES proposal of sustainable and regional rural electrification
program
based on renewable energy in the province of Luang Prabang,
Laos, by Mr. Sebastian
Goelz, Fraunhofer
Institute for Solar Energy Systems
• Delta
PRO RES proposal of sustainable and regional rural electrification
program
based on renewable energy in the province of Binh Phuoc, Vietnam,
by Kevin Mozas,
Fondation
Energies pour le Monde (FONDEM)
The second day was divided into 3 parallel sessions, each
dedicated to one of the 3 projects. These sessions were useful
in providing in-depth discussions on the modalities of the
Delta PRO RES projects: technology, organisation, responsibilities,
financing, etc.
All the documents related to the parallel session are available
in the Kampong Cham
(Cambodia), Luang Prabang
(Lao PDR) and Binh Phuoc
(Vietnam) sections.
The seminar was fruitful and allowed the different stakeholders
to insist on their specific concerns. It permitted everyone
to better understand the Delta PRO RES approach, and created
a certain dynamism for renewable energies around the proposed
programs.
The following main points were highlighted in the speeches
of the different stakeholders:
• Political will from national and provincial
authorities:
- Will to
strongly develop renewable energies to provide access to electricity
for
rural populations;
- Lobbying
of the Ministries of Energy to obtain tax exemptions for “renewable
energy”
components from the Ministries of Finance;
- Opening
up to implement innovative financing modalities, such as Public-
Private
Partnerships. See below.
• Project financing issues:
- International
financing institutions declared to be interested in taking
part in
regional
rural electrification programmes based on renewable energies,
but
would invest
only in projects with budgets of $10 million or more;
- Local banks,
essential to limit operating risks, are not involved in the
sector.
They don’t
invest in capital risk operations and have no links with international
banks;
- The contribution
of subsidies is essential to at least guarantee the economical
balance
of the projects;
- The option
to set up Public-Private Partnerships was received positively.
In Vietnam,
the Vice President of the Binh Phuoc Popular Committee confirmed
that the
proposed approach (involvement of a private company subsidised
by
State or
Provincial funds) is new not only for Binh Phuoc, but for
Vietnam as
well. He
accepted this idea because it makes it possible to reach public
goals,
and would
like to actively encourage the province in this direction.
In Lao PDR,
national
authorities have validated the possibility of having the State
finance
the distributing
systems (grids) while the production systems would be
financed
by a private company.
• Operational expertise: no or only
few local operators exist at the provincial level. They are,
nevertheless, essential to implement a regional-scale operation.
Work in terms of training and incentives has to be launched.
• Technical solutions: beyond photovoltaic
and mini-hydraulic techniques, local stakeholders have shown
a real interest in launching projects based on other resources,
in particular biomass (biogas or biofuel), whose efficiency
and reliability has to be demonstrated in such contexts.
H.E Dr Sat Samy opening the Seminar
Participants attending the plenary session
Presentation of the Delta PRO RES projects
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