The third meeting of the Technical Steering Committee of the Project on Enhancement of a Sustainable Regional Energy Market in the Eastern Africa Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region (ESREM/EA-SA-IO) takes place in Nairobi, Kenya from July 30 to August 22018.
ESREM is a seven million euros project funded by the European Union to address market governance and regulatory related challenges affecting the implementation of energy development projects in the region.
“The overall objective of the project is to create a regional energy market that is conducive to investment and sustainable energy development,” COMESA says a statement issued in Nairobi.
The project will run for four years since the signing of the grant delegation agreement with COMESA in May 2017.
Members of the Project Steering Committee comprise of energy experts from five participating Regional Economic Communities (RECs): The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) the East African Community (EAC,) Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC).
Other are the Regional Associations of Energy Regulators, the Regional Power Pools, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centres and the European Union Delegations to the three sub-regions.
The energy experts will review progress on the implementation of the project’s first-year work programme (2017- 2018) and adopt the work plan and budget for the second year 2018-2019.
Among the key activities carried out in the first year were: the development of a framework for regulatory oversight of the regional energy market. The other is the implementation of a program to develop a regionally harmonized energy regulatory framework and support for the establishment of a regional autonomous regulator for the South African Power Pool.
According to the statement, prior to the energy experts meeting, an awareness training for regional journalists and communication experts from the participating organizations will be conducted on July 30, 2018 as part of the project’s communication and visibility strategy.
“Communication experts from the RECs, Ministries of energy, energy associations and power pools will participate in the one-day training and visit a renewable energy project. Journalists from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi will also attend the training,” it says.