Roster of Energy Access Consultants at Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps - Energy 4 Impact is building a roster of Consultants on Access to Energy to perform tasks at different stages of the project cycle, including contributions to proposal and bids writing.  Consultants to become part of the pool are expected to have proven expertise on energy access in the countries where Mercy Corps and Energy 4 Impact work.  Key areas of focus will include powering agriculture including irrigation, cooling and processing, maximising value from the electricity grid, humanitarian energy, women economic empowerment, productive use of energy, clean cooking, support to green mini-grid developers and energy access companies in business modeling, market research, product design, investment readiness and capital access. 

Purpose:

The Consultants on Access to Energy will perform tasks along the following functions: 

• Collaboration in the elaboration of strategies, for programs, countries and regions, 
• Creation of market scanning tools for energy access-related supply and demand - also to evaluate potential private sector partners
• Business modeling across different sub-sectors to support the expansion of current energy access activities, support energy companies to increase their sales volumes and reaching new markets
• Supporting the structuring of different investment facilities, including funds, innovation and challenge competitions to de-risk private sector energy companies to explore new markets, promote new technologies  
• Designing and conducting desk-based and field-based research & assessments, inclusive of literature review, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, site specific assessments, data analysis and report writing
• Proposal development for energy access programming (grants and contracts
• Mapping energy access value chain in various themes or contexts

The areas of expertise required to collectively form the pool of consultants through individual candidatures include but are not limited to: 

• Agriculture (crops and livestock, productive use applications such as solar irrigation, cooling and e-transportation)
• Electrification (solar home systems/mini-grid/stand-alone systems, grid expansion and densification). We are particularly interested in those with a background in electric engineering, technical system design, business modeling, and advice to SMEs etc
• Clean cooking (supply, distribution, financing, advice to SMEs)  
• Financing (SME and end-user financing, de-risking instruments, results based financing, capital raising (grants, equity, debt), crowdfunding, climate financing, etc)
• Last mile distribution (end user financing, retail and distribution strategies, after sales service, etc)
• Policy and regulations for electrification, productive use applications and clean cooking
• Climate smart and renewable energy technologies and related financing systems

Consultant Activities:

Once retained, the individual consultants will receive detailed requests and scopes of work in accordance with the specific needs that will arise.  The individual consultants will have the right to refuse a specific assignment in accordance with their own availability. 

The individual consultants will be assigned a point of contact depending on the assignment, but should be prepared to work across teams with autonomy and flexibility. 

Consultant Deliverables:

• The specific scopes of work will detail the deliverables per each assignment. 

Requirements: 

• At least 3-years experience in the specific sector of energy access expertise for which the application is submitted 
• Willingness to travel, also at short notice if required by the assignment
• Proven work experience in some the countries where Mercy Corps and Energy 4 Impact work
• Relevant masters degree to the required energy access expertise desirable
• Fluency in written and oral English is a must 
• Fluency in French, Kiswahili and other local African language is an asset