To access this page in french please click here. 

Second Edition of Understanding Power Purchase Agreements 

In July 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Commercial Law Development Program (in partnership with the African Legal Support Facility) brought together a group of world-class experts to update and refresh the "Understanding Power Purchase Agreements" handbook five years after the original publication. The updated handbook, funded by Power Africa, includes additional insight and case studies on the negotiation of power purchase agreements for both small and large-scale projects, along with new guidance on emerging issues in the African power markets such as commercial and industrial power purchase agreements and cross-border agreements.

The updated handbook was drafted using the Book Sprint method, 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 2.0 of the handbook is available here in PDFformat. The handbook is published under the Creative Commons License. Please contact Mohammed Loraoui with any questions regarding the handbook. 

Overview of Each Chapter

The authors of the Second Edition of Understanding Power Purchase Agreements prepared brief presentations giving a general overview of each chapter of the book. Please find the links to the presentations below.

• Introduction to the Understanding series 

• Chapter 3: Power Projects in Context (video link)
  Power Projects in Context (presentation link)

• Chapter 4: The Power Purchase Agreement (video link)
  The Power Purchase Agreement (presentation link)

• Chapter 5: Financing of Power Projects (video link)
  Financing of Power Projects (presentation link)

• Chapter 6: Financial Provisions (video link)
  Financial Provisions (presentation link)

• Chapter 7: Risk Allocation and Mitigation (video link)
   Risk Allocation and Mitigation (presentation link)

• Chapter 8: Default and Termination (video link)
   Default and Termination (presentation link) 

• Chapter 9: Other PPA Provisions (video link)
   Other PPA Provisions (presentation link)

• Chapter 10: Other Types of PPAs (video link)
  Other Types of PPAs (presentation link) 

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.

The Understanding handbooks establish a common understanding of best practices around successful power project development. The Understanding series now includes a total of five handbooks, with 55,00 copies in print and tens of thousands more copies downloaded online. As with the previous handbooks, this handbook, which was led by CLDP and the African Development Bank’s African Legal Support Facility, is the product of a consultative process involving U.S. Government agencies, African governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector stakeholders.

Authors

The following is a list of authors who contributed to the Second Edition of Understanding Power Purchase Agreements (in alphabetical order): 

• Mohamed Badissy, Assistant Professor, Penn State Dickinson Law (United States)
• Alex Evans, Associate General Counsel, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (United States)
• Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (Nigeria)
• Jay Govender, Director and Head, Projects and Energy Sector, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc. (South Africa)
• Ryan T. Ketchum, Partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (United Kingdom)
• Mohammed Loraoui, Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Department of Commerce (United States)
• Charles Liebenberg, Chief Financial Officer, AMEA Power (United Arab Emirates)
• Subha Nagarajan, Managing Director, GCA Energy Financial Services - GE Capital (United States)
• Gadi Taj Ndahumba, Head of Power Sector, African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) (Côte d'Ivoire)
• Justin Pavry, Deputy Chief Legal Officer, Debt & Project Finance, CDC Group plc (United Kingdom)
• Omar Vajeth, Investment Officer, African Development Bank (South Africa)