Pambegua Project: Rural grid rehabilitation for renewable energy access and C&I

67007483-21c8-4689-98e3-73b9ffd8bf3a

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£12,832,291

March 31, 2023

March 31, 2026

Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) is to achieve universal access to energy by 2030\. Given high expected population growth over that period, the target requires connecting a cumulative total of more than 1 billion people. In SSA, reaching universal access by 2030 would require tripling the current rate of annual connections to over 60 million people on average each year (IEA). Achieving universal access will require an average investment of US$40bn per year, with two thirds of the additional investment in SSA alone. The nearly 600 million people without access to electricity in SSA, represent over two thirds of the global total. About half of the SSA population without access to electricity live in five countries: Nigeria, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Konexa was created to address the need to develop and invest in electrical distribution networks in SSA. Konexa will operate across the energy sector value chain including power generation (solar PV and hydro), medium voltage and low voltage distribution networks, last mile reticulation, and off-grid distributed solutions (solar home systems, mesh grids and mini-grids). Konexa aims to achieve operational efficiencies across its on-grid and off-grid initiatives by implementing and utilizing utility system technologies, common systems and processes and leveraging synergies across infrastructure assets such as call centres, customer service centres and operations and maintenance resources. In addition, by re-integrating large anchor commercial and industrial customers to the grid that currently rely on diesel, Konexa can cross-subsidize the provision of reliable energy to lower-income grid-connected residential customers and off-grid customers with the significant revenue base of these anchor customers.

Konexa has received regulatory approval from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to develop the first distribution sub-franchise in the country. We have partnered with the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDCO), a utility serving four states in Northern Nigeria. We have deployed off-grid technologies including mini-grids, mesh grids, and solar home systems, and signed PPAs with C&I customers in both urban and rural areas.

This project aims to extend our business model into rural areas by leveraging PPAs with rural C&I customers and rehabilitating existing utility assets to serve surrounding communities from our centralised generation site, while serving smaller communities with mesh grids and solar home systems.