Job Title: Intern
Full/Part-Time: Full Time/Part Time
Reports to: NREP Fund Manager
Primary Position Location: Work from Office and Home
Programme Background
The Nepal Renewable Energy Programme (NREP) is a Government of Nepal programme designed to mobilize private sector investment to develop distributed renewable energy (DRE) in “missing middle” Commercial, Institutional, & Industrial (CI&I) markets and to increase energy access in remote areas. NREP operates in three Provinces—2, Lumbini (5), and Karnali (6)—where NREP is supporting Provincial and Local Governments to achieve effective analysis, development, and implementation of DRE projects, policies, planning, and strategies.
The Programme’s intended impact is transformational change in DRE development in Nepal through increased private sector investment. More specific programme outcomes are:
- Enhanced institutional strength in national and subnational governments and the private sector, including financial institutions, and increased awareness distributed renewable energy for the missing middle markets among the Nepali public
- Established enabling policy, regulatory, and legal environment to de-risk and increase private sector investment in DRE for CI&I markets and for sustainable energy for all
- Increased mobilization of private sector investment and installed capacity in distributed renewable energy at the subnational level for inclusive, low-carbon economic growth and sustainable energy access for all.
Programme milestones include:
- Leveraging of £37.2m of private and public sector investment in DRE
- An increase in installed capacity of DRE by 16 MW—from new or upgraded installations
- Significant avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
- Provision of DRE to 95,000 households; 500 small businesses; and 200 schools and health centres
- Strengthened institutional and policy reforms and improved compliance mechanisms— across Federal, Provincial, and Local governments.
The Programme is comprised of three components:
- Market Development Component. AEPC and NREP will implement and provide Technical Assistance for activities designed to assess, develop and finance DRE projects in high-priority markets such as Commercial & Industrial missing middle markets, small businesses, health centres, schools and households. Ideally many of these projects will be formed as Public-Private Partnerships which leverage the assets and investments of Provincial and Local Governments to de-risk and mobilize private sector investment especially in the C&I sectors. A critical mechanism to achieve these DRE projects goals is the Sustainable Energy Challenge Fund (SECF), being implemented under AEPC’s Central Renewable Energy Fund (CREF), to provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to make marginally feasible projects bankable. Once the SECF is approved by MoEWRI, it should signal the intent for AEPC to transition toward a competitive, market-based approach to incentivizing DRE using VGF-based financial assistance as well as the intent for the entire Nepali energy sector to embrace competitive awards and private sector investment needed for larger-scale DRE projects.
- Universal Energy Access Component. AEPC and NREP will implement and provide Technical Assistance for activities designed to develop and implement electric cooking (e-cooking) as a basis to greatly increase universal energy access for households. The Programme will be initially focusing on e-cooking for households in the near term but will expand to other technologies—e.g., solar lighting, biogas cookstoves, mini-hydro, Solar Home Systems, and solar microgrids—in subsequent years. Other activities will develop an enabling environment to support and institutionalize not only e- cooking, but other technologies that will expand universal energy access options at the household level.
- Cross-cutting Component. AEPC and NREP will implement and provide Technical Assistance for cross-cutting activities designed to plan, track, and craft an enabling environment that will sustain the impact of the Programme after NREP’s period of performance is complete, as well as add support specific to the Market Development and Universal Energy Access Components. An important contextualization activity is to assess Nepal’s current DRE policies, regulations, acts, etc. to find possible gaps that could be addressed to create a more enabling environment, one conducive to in- creased and sustained levels of private sector investment of DRE. NREP has traditionally developed capacity for public sector entities such as the Ministries of Physical Infrastructure Development at the Provincial Government level, but the Programme will now also act on developing capacity in the private sector. These private sector players want to better understand how they can develop solar and other DRE projects for the CI&I markets. Across all activities and components, the Programme will continue to plan, report on, and track progress of the programme including the all-important issue of equity, inclusive of factors other than gender and social inclusivity to include environmental, economic considerations.
NREP is implemented by the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), with financial support from UKAid Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office, and Technical Assistance from the DAI-Global UK Consortium—including DAI Global UK, Winrock International, Policy Entrepreneurs Inc., and Samriddha Pahad.
Main Duties of Intern
- To support NREP’s Market Development Component team in the operationalization of the Sustainable Energy Challenge Fund (SECF). Specifically, the Intern would:
- Coordinate with Technical and Fund Management teams to understand the priority and planning for advisory role
- Connect the queries, issues, questions from project developers/SECF applicants to concerned team members efficiently
- Support in responding to basic queries from potential SECF applicants
- Support in handholding potential concept note applicants to submit their forms online
- Support in documentation of SECF procedures
- Support in handholding potential SECF applicants to submit their forms online
- Support in data collection and follow-up to DRE adopters and developers, Provincial and Local Governments, and other stakeholders
- Coordinate meetings with various committees for the smooth decision process
- Support in coordinating and collecting documents for monitoring the quarterly progress of awardees
- Prepare and generate all required report on time for list of applicants, its progress at different stage, phone/email queries details, and other relevant information
- Perform any other relevant duty as assigned by your supervisor
Application Instructions
If you are interested in applying for this internship, please send us your application along with your CV and a recommendation letter from your university via email by 31 December 2021 to NREPrecruitment@NREPNEPAL.COM