OFID/ARE supports Titimane Project - "Clean Energy Mini-Grids” Initiative in Mozambique

The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) firmly believes that access to reliable, affordable, economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sound energy services is crucial for developing countries. OFID has recognized the importance of mini-grids and is giving strong priority to encouraging the private sector involvement in this market. To demonstrate this support OFID and ARE – Alliance for Rural Electrification, signed in September 2015 a Grant Agreement, with the aim of supporting the accelerated deployment, and promote the productive use of hybrid mini-grids. The financial aid extended by OFID is intended to provide a de-risking mechanism for business ventures to stimulate replication and scaling up.

One of the selected projects for OFID financing under the Grant Agreement with ARE was the EDP project in Titimane, Niassa, Mozambique.

In the scope of UNEP's initiative "Clean Energy Mini-grids", EDP established a partnership to develop cost-effective, decentralized, clean energy applications in isolated off-grid communities.

Following a screening process, an off-grid village was selected, Titimane, in Mozambique, given its more favorable enabling conditions: strong local partner SAN-JFS, biomass potential and more compact village.

The 4.000 inhabitants of the village of Titimane, in northern Mozambique, are about to enter a new phase of their history. The project to supply electricity, led by EDP in partnership with UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme, has secured 1,75 million euros to finance the investment and is currently in the licensing phase after which the construction of a mini-grid will begin.

This project is within the scope of UNEP’s programme “Decentralized energy applications“ and is one of the High Impact Opportunities (HIO) of the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4All), for the promotion of clean energy mini-grids. It gathers a wide range of stakeholders: private partners - EDP and Mozambican company SAN-JFS (Sociedade Algodoeira do Niassa - Grupo João Ferreira dos Santos), public bodies - Mozambican Government, FUNAE (Fundo de Energia) and EDM (Electricidade de Moçambique) -, and international development entities - EEP (Energy and Environment Partnership) and OFID-ARE (OPEC Fund for International Partnership - Alliance for Rural Electrification).

This project creates an opportunity to test a new business model (mini-utility based on fee-for-service) with innovative technologies (solar, storage, biomass, micro-grid, pre-payment) as a first step into a potentially large attractive and unserved market.

Check here the Titimane project video.