Senior County Energy Planning (CEP) Consultant - Baringo County at Practical Action Kenya

Objective of assignment
The Senior Consultant should meet the following objectives:

• In collaboration with the County Government of Baringo to provide technical support in conducting baseline survey activities that serve as a basis for the development of CEPs.
• To conduct assessment studies on the status of clean cooking at the county level, in relation to specific fuels and technologies.
• Conduct an analysis of key nexus sectors that have been chosen by respective counties as a focus for the CEP solution development
• Provide thematic expertise in key areas of least-cost electrification, clean cooking, gender, and Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency
• Provide technical leadership in the development of Baringo County Energy Plan.

The assignment will be conducted into five (5) phases as below:

Phase 1: Literature review and context analysis for county energy planning

• Conduct literature review and analysis of key national and county energy policies and acts, county energy profiles, The County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP), census reports and other such documents that serve as a basis for energy planning.
• Assess current energy use and supply.
• Identify potential future energy supply.
• Analyse the existing energy activities, projects, plans, programmes and policies of the national government, county government, development partners, private sector stakeholders and non-governmental organizations.
• Identify available human and organizational resources to help implement County Energy Plans.
• Identify priorities and focal areas; and select short-term and medium-term priorities.

Phase 2: Baseline survey execution

• Collect primary data through a sample survey in the county to understand the status of energy access for households, community facilities and enterprises. Primary data gathering will be used to fill any data gaps remaining after the literature review, and to help triangulate findings, for example, where secondary data from the literature is less recent.
• Carry out qualitative surveys too get deeper insights on the context opportunities and challenges within the focus sectors through a range of data gathering activities on the ground including Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs).
• Conduct an in depth survey to understand the status on cooking energy in the county focusing on the market for both cooking technologies and fuels.
• Support the county to complete baseline analysis and prepare for community needs assessment.
• The Consultant should ensure inclusivity of minority and marginalised groups(special interest groups) e.g., people with disabilities, youth, religious communities, female headed households when conducting the assignment.

Phase 3: Stakeholder Engagement and needs identification at community and sector level

• Work with the county CEP team to assess and establish the true needs and expectations of the local community in terms of development, welfare economic activities, health care, education etc and the role of energy in meeting these needs. This will be done through:
• Key informant interviews with actors from key sectors while taking a value chain wide approach to include producers, aggregators, transporters distributors end user.
• Focus group discussions on specific sectors to further scrutinize the views and priorities from the perspective of energy as an enabler.
• Sectoral workshops to further interrogate the priorities derived from KIIs and FGDs linked to wider sectoral priorities and plans.
• Develop a long list of priorities based on the baseline survey findings. The long list will be based on the following structure:
• Needs at household level focusing on lighting, cooking, heating, productive use in cottage activities, education for children, security.
• Needs at the community level for a range of community services such as health, education, access to credit, or community services related to economic activities (access to water, street or marketplace lighting, storage capacities, to training and sensitisation).
• Needs at the County level focussing on the macro-economic development (e.g agriculture, trade and industry) and the resulting need for development of energy sources. This shall help the counties to develop a vision for the energy plan and priorities to be implemented for the next 10 years. It will also identify the short-term priorities to be developed for the next 3/5 years and the medium-term priorities to be sketched and included in CIDP/ADPs.

Phase 4: Development of energy solutions including mainstreaming of clean cooking in the CEPs

• The consultant will guide the county to draft solutions that respond to the priority needs identified particularly those ones to be developed/answered by the first generation of CEPs. Other priorities will be developed in subsequent versions/revisions of the CEP (after 3 years). The process of solutions development will be guided by the INEP Frameworks stages 6-10

The solutions should cover the following aspects:

• Electrification for households, institutions and businesses(Grid and off grid options)
• Clean cooking
• Bioenergy
• Energy efficiency and conservation
• Solutions development will further include:
• Identifying policies, programmes, and projects to be implemented in order to achieve the county vision and energy goals
• A financing strategy showing the financial requirements for different types of actions, potential financing sources and mechanism (grants, debt, Results Based Financing.
• Establish operational responsibilities.
• A risk analysis framework
• A plan for performance measurement and reporting.

Phase 5: CEP write up

• Coordinate the write up of the CEP involving compilation of inputs from different work streams and aligning these to the CEP template provided under the INEP framework.
• Present the draft CEP for review and validation by the County CEP Technical committee

Time Frame
Overall, the assignment shall be undertaken and completed within 5 months upon signing of the contract.

Selection process
The bidders shall submit a technical proposal responding on the following:

• The profile and experience of the bidders including demonstration of the eligibility criteria.
• Maximum 15 pages technical concept and approach excluding annexes on how the tasks listed in the section above (section 2) shall be delivered and achieved.
• Consultant’s CV showing relevant experiences.
• Expert Requirements Senior Energy Consultant
• Minimum of a Master’s degree in a field related to renewable energy, environmental planning, environmental studies, natural resources, social sciences/ development studies
• At least 7 years’ experience in clean cooking and bioenergy, renewable energy, energy planning, research
• Demonstrate experience in energy planning (demand assessment, solution design, modelling) and research and analysis.
• Experience with energy delivery model approaches(desirable)
• Experience in developing tools and templates.
• Experience engaging with counties governments is an advantage.
• Mandatory prior experience in similar roles through The Sustainable Energy Technical Assistance (SETA), the project of the Ministry of Energy, provides institutional capacity development support for the sustainable energy sector in Kenya.

Administrative and logistical support

• Practical Action will cater for all travel, accommodation and subsistence incurred by the consultant in the course of the assignment. Any additional costs must be agreed with Practical Action in writing. This will be done in line with Practical Action policies and upon approval of costs by the Project Manager.
• Note that the payments will be done subject to the consulting entity meeting quality and timely delivery of stated task.