26.02.2018

GAUFF Engineering has successfully supported Madagascar on the revision of the regulation of the electricity sector

In the framework of the implementation of the new energy policy (NPE), the government of the Republic of Madagascar has assigned GAUFF Engineering to provide technical and legal support on the revision of Law No. 98-032 concerning the regulation of the electricity sector in Madagascar.

The contracting authorities were the Ministry of Water, Energy and Hydrocarbons (MEEH), the Regulatory Authority for Electricity (ORE) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), within the scope of a trilateral Partnership Agreement for the revision of the legal framework of the electricity sector (PRC-ELEC).

The experts of GAUFF Engineering began this project with an extensive assessment of the situation of the Madagascan electricity sector and of all the hereto-existing documents. On the basis of the above, a draft of the new text of law has been compiled, meeting the objectives of the contracting authority for the new energy policy, suggesting solutions for the problems having been identified in the analyses and complying with international quality standards.

In view of the new edition of the law, GAUFF Engineering did analyze in particular the following fields:

• Public procedures (tendering, unsolicited applications, granting of authorizations/concessions, award of contracts, thresholds, regulation of self-production, etc.)
• Investment protection
• Standards for the electricity sector
• Pricing for the electricity
• Renewable energies
• Rural electricity supply
• Sustainability and quality of PPP-projects

GAUFF organized and moderated in total six participatory workshops accompanying the progressive development of the new version of the law and provided technical and legal support. Among other things, weak points of the current law were determined and suggestions for improvement were compiled. The following topics were found to be particularly challenging:

• High market entry barriers
• Tedious procedures
• Lack of possibilities to sanction defaulting market participants
• Lack of regulations on the exploitation of renewable energies

The revision of the legal framework of the Madagascan electricity sector and the analysis of the impact of the changes due to the law as well as the amendments of the law on the regulations were started in November 2016. The new law has been approved by the Parliament in October 2017 and is to be confirmed by the judicial system of Madagascar already this spring 2018.

Following the successful conclusion of the project, the Ministry of Water, Energy and Hydrocarbons (MEEH) expressed his thanks to GAUFF Engineering, in particular for the high-level professionalism and emphasized the invaluable support in promoting the sustainable development of the electricity sector in Madagascar.