Energy Poverty Action

"Delivering business expertise and best practices to reducing energy poverty"

What Is Energy Poverty Action?
The Energy Poverty Action (EPA) initiative is a private sector initiative created by several CEOs of leading energy companies during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2005 in Davos, Switzerland. In support of the UN Millennium Goals, the EPA aims to address energy poverty in the developing world by implementing electrification schemes (grid-extension and off-grid) that are sustainable, replicable and scalable.

Why?
Poor access to energy entrenches poverty, constrains the delivery of social services, limits opportunities for women and erodes environmental sustainability at the local, national and global levels. Worldwide, nearly 2.4 billion people use traditional biomass fuels for cooking and heating, and nearly 1.6 billion do not have access to network electricity. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest electrification rate in the world with three out of four people without access to electrical energy (IEA, World Energy Outlook 2002).

Who Is Involved?
Alliance Partners
EPA is managed and facilitated by global companies in partnership with national governments and international financial institutions. The initiating companies, British Columbia Hydro (Canada), Eskom (South Africa) and Vattenfall (Sweden) signed an Alliance Agreement to facilitate the implementation of projects in Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The EPA Board, comprising the Alliance Partners, provides strategic advisory services and technical know-how for the design, supervision and construction of projects.

The governments of Lesotho and the DRC ensure national ownership of the projects and their integration in the national development programmes, and facilitate financing and project implementation.

The World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum has undertaken the Energy Poverty Action initiative in the context of its Industry Partnership programme for the Energy sector. The Forum facilitates dialogue between its member companies, national governments, intergovernmental organizations and representatives of civil society, and supports EPA Alliance Partners in achieving their objectives. The longer-term objective is to establish a formal link with a development institution that is mandated and equipped to grow and sustain the Energy Poverty Action initiative.

How it works
The Energy Poverty Action Management Unit (EPAMU), launched during the World Economic Forum on Africa in June 2007, is a centre of excellence that employs world-class skills and expertise from some of the most sophisticated and committed energy companies in the world to facilitate access to energy for deprived communities by delivering technical, operational, commercial and financial management.

By developing sustainable, replicable models to address the challenges of energy poverty, EPAMU uses the expertise of the EPA partner companies to ensure the capture and sharing of lessons learned.

The delivery of energy access is facilitated by creating a marketplace for energy supply, to overcome energy poverty, and by delivering business expertise and best practices. EPAMU brings together key energy players in partnerships between leading companies, country governments, local entrepreneurs and communities, national and international finance institutions and donors.

Local autonomy, balanced with planning and guidance by national governments and leading development agencies, is the core principle of the EPA approach. Local user associations are formed and empowered to manage, maintain and operate the electrification systems.

Tailored projects will be developed based on the needs and capabilities of each community, while ensuring that key elements of all projects are replicable and can be scaled to meet differing needs. The creation of local capacity to manage energy service delivery, maintain infrastructure and identify opportunities for future expansion is core to all projects.

What Does EPAMU Offer You?

• A global network of essential knowledge and skills
• A platform to engage and collaborate with experienced private energy companies, governments, donors and financiers to provide access to appropriate energy for all.

Leading companies participating in the EPAMU will be able to:

• Engage in the development of efficient projects in the developing world, using business principles and skills
• Contribute socially, economically and technologically, by using sustainable, replicable and scaleable models of electrification
• Empower local user associations with the capacity to manage, maintain and operate the electrification systems
• Stimulate community-level entrepreneurial activity, underpinned by the provision of microfinance, as a spin-off from the provision of electricity.