USAID/Jordan Energy Sector Capacity Building Activity Year 1 Work Plan

The activity aims to develop and adopt a utilities incentive mechanism to promote energy efficiency, increase institutional capacity of the Jordanian energy sector, strengthen the presence and regulation of energy services companies, and provide a flexible response mechanism for emergent energy sector needs and opportunities. The Year 1 Work Plan, submitted on November 10, 2013, outlines the scope of work for the activity. The plan is divided into four tasks: designing a utilities incentive mechanism to promote energy efficiency, building capacity of the energy sector, developing energy services associations, and responding to energy sector opportunities. The tasks are designed to meet the evolving needs of the energy sector in Jordan. Task 1 focuses on designing a utilities incentive mechanism to promote energy efficiency. The task involves setting up a Steering Committee and developing a Reform Timetable. Although progress has been slow, the Steering Committee has been established, and the Reform Timetable has been developed. The team has proceeded with organizational and early engagement efforts, including data requests to distributor companies and NEPCO, initial consultations with key energy sector stakeholders, and data submittals received and reviewed. The stakeholder consultation meetings identified several viewpoints and ideas for DSM programs. The Energy Regulatory Commission emphasized the need to consider energy savings in the entire energy sector, protect customers from excessive price increases, and address power factor issues associated with CFLs. Distributors highlighted the importance of improving supply-side efficiency and distribution losses, load shifting, and load research to identify DSM targets. NEPCO expressed interest in representation on both Working Groups and a clear definition of core vs non-core business. Both EDCO and IDECO have submitted their own DSM project ideas to the ERC. EDCO developed a power factor improvement outreach effort, but customers were mostly indifferent. IDECO submitted a proposal for a solar water heating program where IDECO would extend credit to households purchasing the units, with the credit repaid through the utility bill. The activity aims to increase institutional capacity of the energy sector by building capacity of the energy sector partners, including the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Electricity Regulatory Commission, and electricity production, distribution, and transmission companies. The activity also aims to strengthen the presence and regulation of energy services companies through market research, business development services, accreditation of those companies, and the creation of an energy services association. The activity will be monitored and evaluated through a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, which will track progress, identify challenges, and provide recommendations for improvement. The plan will ensure that the activity is meeting its objectives and making a positive impact on the energy sector in Jordan. The activity has a geographic focus on Jordan and a time frame of August 2013 to August 2014. The recommendations for the activity include engaging high-level stakeholders right from the beginning, revisiting energy sector plans in light of rising fuel costs, and updating the earlier Nexant study of technical and economic potential to reflect future price regimes.