Inclusive and integrated energy services - success factors for Kenya’s new planning framework

Sarah Wykes and Jon Leary , researchers from 英国拉夫堡大学 's Centre for Sustainable Transitions: Energy Environment, Resilience (STEER) and flagship Modern Energy Cooking Services ( MECS programme ), recently took part in a conference held in Naivasha, Kenya to discuss the country's new Integrated National Energy Planning (INEP) Framework, to be launched imminently.

Both researchers gave keynote remarks highlighting the need for inclusive as well as integrated planning approaches to deliver a socially just energy transition in Kenya, and highlighted critical issues such as access to data for successfully implementing the new Framework.

Prior to the main conference, STEER Centre in partnership with the Institute of Energy Studies & Research (IESR), Kenya Power , and the Sustainable Energy Technical Assistance (SETA) programme, supported by #UKPACTKenya, held a workshop on critical issues of data flows and governance to support evidence-based planning.

Aims of the Naivasha conference

The conference was hosted by the Ministry of Energy of Kenya (MoEP) with the Council of Governors, and supported by partners including GIZ Kenya , Delegation of The European Union to Kenya , the Green Climate Fund , SETA, UK PACT Kenya, KOSAP, ESMAP, Climate Compatible Growth #CCG , and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) . It brought together national and county government, private sector, civil society and development partners.

A key objective was to brief the country’s new cohort of County Ministers and officials in relevant sectors on the policy and legal environment for energy planning, including the draft INEP regulations. It also aimed to build understanding of the many #energyaccess initiatives in the electricity and #cleancooking sectors taking place in Kenya.??

On the last day of the conference, Kenya’s new Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Davis Chirchir, announced further consultation on the INEP draft Framework in March before its launch.?

Context?

Kenya’s 2010 constitution provided for the devolution of power to its 47 County Governments.?Kenya’s Energy Act (2019) subsequently mandated each county to develop a County Energy Plan (CEP). The CEPs are ten-year blueprints that will feed into the design of an Integrated National Energy Plan (INEP), whose Framework is currently under development by the MoEP.??

The INEP Framework has been developed in response to a changing national and global context for the energy sector. This includes the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (#sdg7) on universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy, the increasing impacts of climate change in Kenya, and the need to secure the country’s energy future. INEP’s vision is for energy services to be planned as enablers of Kenya’s wider development goals, with increased engagement with stakeholders.

CEPs should be aligned with both national sectoral plans (in key sectors such as agriculture, health, water etc.) and the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) that are produced every five years.??

County energy planning to date

To date, Counties have made mixed progress on energy planning, with some Counties having launched their CEPs prior to the INEP Framework development, and others yet to start work. A range of planning approaches have been used by counties, mainly involving contracting external consultants.

Previously, energy planning expertise was centralised in the MoEP and the National Energy Service Providers (NESPs) - KPLC, Kengen, Ketraco etc.??This means there is a lack of energy planning capacity at county level, as well as a range of other challenges - including gaps related to data availability, collection, management and analysis to support evidence-based planning (see below).

Plugging the planning capacity gaps – the EDM approach

A three-year Sustainable Energy Technical Assistance (SETA) programme supported by the European Union was established in 2020 in partnership with the MoEP. SETA is aimed at both county and national level officials. As well as building planning and other technical capacites, it aims to raise awareness on energy as an enabler of development and seed closer collaboration with the private sector and civil society, including the ACCESS Coalition .??

SETA uses the innovative Energy Delivery Models (#EDM) planning approach to train planners, led by a team based at STEER Centre and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) .

EDM is a six-step, inclusive planning approach that starts by identifying the priority development needs of target end users (in this case, county citizens) and then the energy and non-energy gaps preventing the needs being met. It co-creates holistic solutions with end users and sectoral stakeholders that can address the gaps and meet the needs, and that are financially, socially and environmentally sustainable.??

The approach is based on decades of research and practitioner experience showing that siloed, top-down and technology-led approaches to energy planning can result in sub-optimal or failed energy services.?This because they do not approach energy services as enablers of wider development goals - such as education, health, jobs etc. - and pay insufficient attention to the varying socio-cultural contexts and needs of end users.This means both the energy supporting services (such as maintenance and repair), and the non-energy interventions (such as access to finance, markets or training) that are critical to deliver the development impact are often lacking or not thought through.

STEER and IIED have used the EDM approach to deliver basic training to 47 counties and advanced training to 12 counties under SETA. The approach has also been used in working with several County Governments to develop full CEPs. First, in Kitui County (July 2021) and currently in Meru County. The Meru CEP is being used as a demonstration model for the SETA advanced training counties to develop their CEPs.?

Building blocks for successful implementation of INEP (1) – inclusive, cross-sectoral approaches

Jon Leary from MECs also stressed the need for a truly integrated approach to energy planning, enhanced coordination between county and national levels, and other development sectors, including electricity access and clean cooking. He highlighted the role of the four County eCooking Hubs in Kenya as a prime example of how this could be put into practice.??

Sarah Wykes presented the Meru CEP experience. In the case of Meru County, six sets of cross-sectoral solution were developed across household energy access, community services and productive uses of energy. Namely,?increasing farmer income from horticulture and poultry farming; increasing access to basic health services and to clean and affordable water solutions; access to affordable, safer and cleaner cooking solutions; and least cost household electrification.

The need to develop viable business models and investment proposals for the CEP solutions was highlighted. In addition, CEP activities and outputs were aligned with the development priorities in the CIDP for 2023-28 from the outset, with activities for both the demonstration and scale-up phases of implementing the six solutions captured in the relevant sectoral ministry budgets, as well as the energy deparment budget.

Once embedded in the CIDP, the actvities can be translated into subsequent Annual Development Plans (ADPs) and budgeted accordingly. If county governments have fully costed investment proposals, including clear commitment of public funds, they are more likely to attract co-financing from development partners and partnerships with private sector suppliers.?

Building blocks for successful implementation of INEP (2) – Data management and coordination

The workshop held prior to the conference on 27 February presented research carried out by STEER Centre, IESR/KPLC and IIED, supported by UK PACT,. The research mapped the critical data sets needed for county energy planning, based on the Meru County experience, identified current challenges to data collection, management and analysis. It also suggested solutions to address these challenges, which are a risk to successful implementation of INEP.

They include significant energy data gaps - particularly in the cooking sector around end user consumption, practices and preferences - and in other development sectors. There is a cross-cuting lack of granular data at the sub-county and ward level.

The need to enhance coordination on data flows between national and county levels, and to address data access challenges experienced by counties, were also highlighted.?The workshop participants discussed the findings and recommendations for practical solutions made in the research.??

Many of these findings received a positive reception from the MoEP during stakeholder consultations. The draft Framework now includes new chapters on Data Management and Coordination.

Further recommendations endorsed by the Workshop were carried through into the main conference. These included:?

·??????Developing clear data wish-lists, including for non-energy sector data needed for cross-sectoral planning.?

·??????Harmonization of data collection and management tools and capacity building for counties to ensure consistency and ease of integration.?

·??????Development by the new Energy Planning Coordination Unit (EPCU) envisaged under INEP of a data governance policy, and technical guidelines on the various protocols (on data collection, analysis, sharing, and use).?

·??????Clearly defined roles for the various entities tasked under INEP with data functions, to avoid duplication and maximise efficiency.?

·??????Creation of a Data Working Group to develop ideas for data management solutions.?