Angola: Technical assistance to the Angolan Ministry of Energy and Water

Overall Project Data 

Financial Donor:      The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Luanda 

Contract Value:     MNOK 29.6 

Type of Activities: Technical assistance aiming at capacity building. 

Background 

Norway has a long record of cooperation in the energy sector in Angola, which started already in 1987. Several programmes having been implemented to date. In a letter to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Luanda dated 28 February 2011, MINEA again requested assistance in the fields of electricity and water. 

After a programme development phase, the programme document was approved in the fall of 2012. The Technical Assistance Programme started in January 2013. 

 
Activities 

The programme covers three areas of cooperation: 

• Renewable energy: Supporting the development of a modernized legal framework and developing capacity in IRSEA (The regulator Instituto Regulador dos Serviços de Electricidade e de Água). A revision of the general electricity act has been developed and adopted, and a collection of regulations to the act were developed. The regulations were adopted during Q4 2020 – Q1 2021. The support to the regulator has focused on collection of information for regulatory purposes. 
• Energy Efficiency: Initially a survey of electricity use in Luanda was carried out, followed by a diagnostic study on the work with loss control in the utility in Luanda. A plan for delivering a campaign on rational use of electricity has also been developed. Due to a restructuring of the power sector, profoundly affecting the cooperation partner EDEL (Empresa de Distribuição de Energia Eléctrica), further activities are currently put on hold. 
• Hydrology: Focusing on supporting the building up of a newly established national institute for water resources. Training on hydrometry, development of water resource management capacity and rehabilitation of the hydrometric network are key areas. Key outputs are: a study on water tariffs, migration of historical data to a database on the HYDSTRA platform; training on management of measurement stations and establishment of an IT network at the hydrology institute. 

Status

The programme has suffered from exogenous factors like the dramatic fall in oil prices late in 2014, which led to a moratorium on public employment in Angola, and the migrant crisis in Europe in 2015, that seriously curtailed the budgets of 2015 and 2016.  

The main outcomes achieved so far are: 

• A revised law and regulations for the energy sector, which has entered into force. 
• Strengthening of the regulator through development and adoption of a legal document regulating the reporting from sector actors to the regulator.  
• The hydrometric database has been moved to a new platform. 
• A levy for raw water extraction for commercial purposes has been introduced.  
• A IT-network has been established at the institute. 

As of January 2021, only work on hydrology continues. This focuses on field hydrology. This work will run for 2 years. The work is delayed because of the pandemic.