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Introduction

Consultancy Services to Conduct a Feasibility Study for a Solar PV Minigrid with Batteries under the Africa Minigrids Program (“AMP”) - National Project in Sudan

Consultancy Title:	Conduction of a feasibility study for a solar PV minigrid with batteries under the Africa Minigrids Program (“AMP”) - National Project in Sudan.
Type of Contract:	International Consulting firm (the “Supplier” in the following)
Duration:	60 days spread across 6 months
Start date:	28/09/2025

 1.       Background

The Africa Minigrids Program (AMP)

The Africa Minigrids Program (AMP) is a country-led regional technical assistance program for minigrids, active in an initial 21 African countries. It is led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with funding primarily from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented together with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), linking up with a wide array of minigrid stakeholders in Africa and beyond.

AMP’s overall objective is to increase access to electricity by improving the financial viability and promoting scaled-up commercial investment in renewable energy minigrids. The program is focused on minigrid cost-reduction, across hardware costs, soft costs, and financing costs, and innovative business models for minigrids. With lower costs, minigrids will be more financially viable, commercial capital flows will increase, and end-users will benefit from lower tariffs and expanded service.

The AMP program has two main elements: a cohort of national projects and a regional project.

·       An initial 21 national projects[1], each with a common architecture consisting of five components: (i) policy and regulations, (ii) business model innovation with private sector, (iii) innovative finance for minigrids scale-up, and (iv) digital, knowledge management, and (v) M&E.

·       A regional project acting as the knowledge, advocacy and coordinating platform for AMP. This will be achieved through a suite of knowledge tools, technical and operational expertise and support, communities of practice, and promoting innovative digital approaches for minigrid cost reduction.

Objectives of AMP pilot minigrids

AMP national projects include funds (under Component 2: Business model innovation and private sector) for supporting mini-grid investment pilots seeking to demonstrate innovative business models and cost-reduction opportunities. These costs can be loosely categorized as: (1) the hardware or direct CAPEX costs of building the infrastructure required to deliver the services; (2) the indirect or soft costs such as those associated with acquiring all the relevant licenses and permits and conducting necessary studies; (3) the OPEX costs to operate and maintain the system and deliver the energy generated to the end user; and (4) the financing costs arising from the project or investment’s capital structure, which is a function of investors’ required return on equity and the cost of debt accessed by the project. As such, looking at opportunities for reducing hardware/CAPEX, soft, OPEX, and finance costs is a key element of AMP minigrid pilots.

Another key role of the AMP pilots is the capacity building of the local stakeholders in the minigrid sector. In designing and executing the minigrid pilots, it is expected that local stakeholders will be significantly involved, and in this way develop their capacities. Capacity building shall also be achieved through workshops, seminars and other in-person meetings, as well as the AMP Community of Practice that will provide the venue to engage, inform and upskill participants working to scale commercial investment in solar PV minigrids in Africa.

Finally, the AMP pilots are focused on pursuing productive uses of energy that are embedded in agricultural value chains or around which economic activity can be anchored. The minigrids pilots are tasked with driving the uptake of productive use of energy by providing consistent and reliable electricity infrastructure which will in turn energize the agricultural production and other relevant value chains, and in turn increase revenue for the proposed minigrid model.

AMP Minigrid Pilot Plans (MPP)

At the project preparation stage, considerable initial consultations, analysis, and planning were performed to advance the design of the minigrid pilots under each AMP national project. Once the AMP national projects start implementation, and as an initial preparatory step, the AMP project management unit in consultation with key stakeholders, and with support from the AMP regional project, will update and finalize the proposed approach to the design of the minigrid pilots, by compiling a ‘Minigrid Pilot Plan’ (MPP) which will need to (i) be shared for review and clearance by UNDP and (ii) be shared with the national Project Board. A template MPP has been prepared by the AMP regional project to facilitate this process.

The AMP national project in Sudan

The Africa Minigrids Program (AMP) national project in Sudan, implemented by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum with UNDP and GEF support, aims to scale up commercial investments in renewable energy minigrids to enhance rural electrification. The project focuses on hybridizing existing diesel-based minigrids with solar PV systems as a cost-effective and low-carbon solution. Pilot interventions will retrofit selected brownfield sites with MW-scale solar PV and battery storage to reduce diesel consumption, cut operational costs, and increase access to reliable electricity. These pilots, deployed under a phased Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model, will demonstrate innovative business models, support productive energy use—especially in agricultural value chains—and build national capacities to support Sudan’s target of 80% electrification by 2030.

The pilot projects under the AMP Sudan initiative target specific off-grid locations with existing diesel-based minigrids operated by the Sudanese Thermal Generation Company (STGC). These include sites in the Red Sea and Kassala States—namely Hayaa and Hamashkoreeb. These areas were strategically selected based on their distance from the national grid, socio-economic potential, and existing diesel infrastructure. The locations exhibit strong potential for agricultural and commercial activities, making them suitable for the productive use of electricity. Retrofitting these sites with solar PV systems will not only reduce fuel dependency but also improve electricity reliability for underserved communities in these remote regions.

2.       Objectives: The objective of this assignment is to carry out an in-depth feasibility study for the development of the minigrids under Component 2 of the AMP national project in Sudan, covering the technical, economic, social and environmental aspects of setting up the pilot minigrids and ensuring the viable long-term operation of the systems for the benefit of the local population.

Documents :

Negotiation Document(s) (Before Accessing other negotiations Document(s), please click on this link)