As part of several commitments undertaken by Albania in pursuit of its accession to the European Union, the country is engaged in an in-depth reform of its energy sector, with a focus on electricity production, transport and distribution, at all levels of these functioning processes, including operational, financial and structural aspects. A strategic document describing the steps to be taken during this transition phase is a Policy Roadmap, which elements (the “Policy Reform Elements” or” PREs”) are to be implemented during an agreed period of time by the Albanian authorities (and more particularly by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy (MIE)) with the support of two bilateral development agencies, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the German Development Bank (KfW).

In order to support the MIE in this endeavour, the AFD has launched a Technical Assistance (TA) program led by Expertise France (EF) which goal is to help designing the measures to be taken and defining the activities (through an Activity List) to be executed, in close liaison with the Albanian stakeholders and official institutions.

Among the various PREs mentioned above, PRE 9 is the main focus for the proposed mission. It targets the adoption and implementation of a Social Support Scheme (SSS) ensuring that market-opening and price deregulation have minimal economic negative impact on vulnerable customers and households already suffering from energy poverty or possibly entering in that category. The final elaboration of this SSS is the specific objective of the expert to be recruited through the present process.

During the last months, a preliminary analysis has been carried out in order to get as much as possible information and reliable data on the situation in Albania as regards the population access to electricity and related issues. On that basis, the intention is now to go further and provide additional support to the MIE with the view of designing an Action Plan to be adopted by the Albanian Government leading to the implementation of concrete recommendations regarding a Social Support Scheme for Vulnerable Customers, to be precisely argued formulated and defined by the recruited expert. 

In this framework, the expert tasks will be as follows:

1. Analysis of the preliminary findings and insights previously evoked, especially as regards the various recommendations made at short, medium and long term;
2. Evaluate their relevance in the Albanian context and/or suggest any alterations as deemed necessary or other or additional ideas and proposals. This task is especially important since it is considered as crucial to go beyond the initial findings as mentioned in point 1 above in order to come out with a fully-fledged Action Plan as referred to in point 5 below. All aspects likely to intervene in the decision process, such as economic, financial, social, cultural, environmental, etc., will have to be taken into consideration. A particular attention is to be paid in that respect to quantitative evaluations (“how much is the proposed measure likely to cost, at short term and in the long run”) as well as qualitative estimations, in terms of the expected efficiency level of the proposed measures, for instance;
3. Determine the concrete steps necessary to be undertaken in order to concretely implement (in particular when regulatory or legal aspects are at stake) the proposed measures and evaluate the time needed until such a measure can have a significant impact. This point is to be carefully considered when energy efficiency measures are contemplated;
4. Assess the direct and indirect impacts of the proposed measures from various perspectives: social (poverty level, women condition, jobs creation, etc.), environmental (energy consumption, GHG emissions, etc.), economic (GDP growth, public budget issues, etc.);
5. Elaborate for the MIE, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs a joint Action Plan providing an overview of the next steps towards the implementation of the recommendations referred to in point 1 above and support the drafting of an updated Council of Ministers decision as referred to in Action 3 of the related PRE 9[1].

[1] Documentation related to the PREs and Action List will be made available to potential candidates upon request.