Project Background

Energy access in Chad is extremely limited, reaching only 6% of the population with 13% access in urban areas and 1% in rural areas. Chad currently only has about 190MW of installed electricity generation capacity produced from diesel generators, but with only 107MW operational and available to serve a population of 16 million people. Per capita electricity consumption is one of lowest in the world at about 13kWh/year and electricity costs are among the highest, ranging from lows of $0.16/kWh to beyond $0.63/kWh. Chad’s electric grid is limited to N’Djamena, the capital city, and suffers frequent outages. With a national grid network unlikely in the short-to-medium term for the 5th largest country in Africa, power generation remains highly localized.

Conflict and insecurity in the region affect Chad’s operational environment, including the continuing insurgency in the Lake Chad area and instability in neighbouring CAR, Libya and Sudan. This unstable regional context is exacerbated by internal development challenges, chronic poverty, the impact of climate change and a tense socio-economic situation.

ZIZ Energie is a rural and urban electrification EPC with more than 15 grid networks built in Chad since 2006. It has diversified and evolved into an offgrid utility and currently owns and operates five diesel powered minigrids in Chad, which it plans to convert to solar-plus-storage hybrid systems. This transition will start in the city of Mongo, where ZIZ is developing a new 2.5MW off-grid solar (plus battery storage) minigrid that transitions and expands an existing diesel power plant and will be deployed in the first phase of 5 cities.

This will include a new urban grid network built to cover 85% of the city of Mongo. Once completed, it is expected to reach 3,200 connections to households, SMEs, and public institutions, with at least with at least 70,000 direct beneficiaries in the first city of Mongo (and 250,000 across the five cities of the first phase).

The system reached provisional commissioning in June 2022.

Community profile

Mongo, the capital region of Guéra, is an agropastoral city of 70,000 inhabitants. It is known for its university, and serves as a regional crossroads, with representation from Chad’s many ethnic groups. Most of Mongo’s population is currently without electricity.

Role of P-REC and project impacts

Revenue from the sale of P-RECs will support new solar streetlights in Mongo, which will support socio-economic development by increasing access to lighting, improving nighttime safety, and enhancing commercial activity by extending evening business hours/night markets. Streetlights will be installed in three phases, with Phase One focusing on key commercial streets and infrastructure, delivering a significant positive impact on the quality of life and safety for Mongo residents.

This project is expected to contribute to the following SDGs: