Understanding Power Project Procurement

In September 2017, CLDP (in partnership with the African Legal Support Facility) brought together a group of world-class experts to draft the third handbook in Power Africa's "Understanding" series, Understanding Power Project Procurement. The newest Power Africa handbook, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is intended to serve as a practical resource for decision-makers on the policy and strategy behind the procurement of power projects. 

The procurement handbook was drafted using the same Book Sprint method as the Power Purchase Agreements and Project Financing handbooks, which allowed our diverse group of contributors from African governments, multilateral institutions, development banks, private developers, procurement consultants and leading international law firms, all whom contributed their time on a pro-bono basis, to complete the handbook in only five days. Version 1.0 of the handbook is available here in PDF format. A french version of the handbook is available here and an amharic version of the book is available here. The handbook is published under the Creative Commons License. Please contact Mohamed Badissy with any questions regarding the handbook. Photos from the drafting workshop can be found here and a blog posting by BookSprints on the event can be found here.

Background

Since 2013, the U.S. Government’s Power Africa initiative has sought to marshal technical, legal and financial resources to support the goal of doubling access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through a substantial network of public and private sector partners, Power Africa is working alongside dozens of African governments to facilitate the development of privately financed and operated power projects on a scale that will meet the continent’s power deficit. 

Power Africa has developed a series of handbooks to establish a common understanding of best practices around successful power project development. The Understanding series now includes a total of four handbooks, with 40,000 copies in print and tens of thousands more copies downloaded online. As with the previous handbooks, this handbook, which was led by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program and the African Development Bank’s African Legal Support Facility, is the product a consultative process involving U.S. Government agencies, African governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector stakeholders.

In working with African governments to adopt the principles outlined in the earlier Understanding series handbooks in, the issue of power project procurement was often raised as a persistent challenge in the African market. In response to this request, Power Africa sought to create a reference guide that lays out the procurement procedures governments have employed to manage the orderly planning, negotiation, and construction of power projects. This process combines the transparency and competitiveness of procurement with the legal, technical and financial planning for infrastructure development and has enabled governments and the private sector to work together to deliver power projects on a timely and cost-efficient basis. The hope of the authors is that by establishing a common understanding of the core elements of effective power project procurement, this handbook will aid governments in their mission to secure increased access to power for the public.

Authors

The following is a list of authors who contributed to Understanding Power Project Procurement (in alphabetical order):

• Chana Abrams, General Counsel, Gigawatt Global (United Kingdom) 
• Mohamed Badissy, Senior Attorney for Energy and Finance, U.S. Department of Commerce (United States)
• Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (Nigeria)
• Mike Fitzpatrick, Director, J Maynard (Pty) Ltd (South Africa)
• Jay Govender, Director – Projects and Infrastructure, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc. (South Africa)
• Tony lmaduwa, Chief Executive Officer, Seychelles Energy Commission (Seychelles)
• Ryan T. Ketchum, Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP  (United Kingdom)
• Wikus Kruger, Research Fellow, Graduate School of Business - University of Cape Town (South Africa)
• Andrea Lupo, Director for Global Programs, U.S. Trade and Development Agency (United States)
• Lena Mangondo, Head of Legal, Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (South Africa)
• Patrick Mawala, Manager - Energy Purchase & Regulatory Affairs, Kenya Power and Lighting Company (Kenya)
• Subha Nagarajan, Managing Director – Africa, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (United States)
• Lisa Pinsley, Director - Energy, Actis (South Africa)
• Kaushik Ray, Partner, Trinity International LLP (United Kingdom)
• Amir Shaikh, Chief Legal Counsel, African Legal Support Facility (Côte D'Ivoire)
• Nico Saporiti, Senior Investment Officer, International Finance Corporation (United States)