Compagnie Marocco Senegalaise d' Electricite/St. Louis SAU

completed

_x000C_The Project is the first rural electrification concession in Senegal and consists of the design, construction and operation of a rural electricity distribution system to connect and supply electricity to 19, 574 customers in 298 rural villages over the first three years of the concession, either by extending a grid network or by installing solar kits. The concession area comprises all villages of the Departments of St. Louis, Dagana and Podor, excluding 51 villages which have been previously electrified by Senelec (Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal, a state owned utility in Senegal). There are 510 non-electrified rural villages in the concession area out of which 298 rural villages will be electrified by the Project. Out of a total of 19,574 new customers in 298 villages, 13,885 (71% of total) in 156 villages will be connected to the distribution network, and 5,719 (29% of total) in 142 villages will be connected with solar installations. In addition, the Project will implement two multi-sectoral energy programs (PREMs) consisting of (a) electrification of two new milk collection centers with cold storage installations, and (b) the electrification of 28 health centers, 10 of which will be grid connected and 18 of which will receive solar installations. The Project is estimated to install 1,429 solar kits of 50Wp, 2,860 solar kits of 90Wp, and 1,430 solar kits of 180Wp, during the first three years of the concession, to supply electricity to 142 villages. On the grid connection side, the Project is estimated to install 331 km of 30 kV distribution lines, 393 km of 220 V / 380 V distribution lines and 143 transformers, to supply electricity to 156 villages. The concession area (about 19,000km2 with estimated population of 362,000 in 2003) is located 270 km north of Dakar, along the Senegal River, close to the border with Mauritania. The Project will be developed by Compagnie Marocco-Sénégalaise d’Electricité/ St.Louis SAU (Comasel de Saint Louis S.A.) (“Comasel St Louis” or “the Company”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Office National de l’Electricité (“ONE”), Morocco’s electricity utility. The concession was signed between ONE and the Agence Sénégalaise d´Electrification Rurale (“ASER”), Senegal’s autonomous entity responsible for managing rural electrification programs in May 2008. ONE has more than 13 years of experience investing in solar technology in Morocco. As of end 2008, ONE had electrified 3,653 villages with solar kits (around 10.6% of the total electrified villages), supplying electricity to 51,509 households (2.8% of the total rural households). Comasel St Louis will use ONE’s experience of conducting rural electrification projects. ONE’s experience can be found at their website (www.one.org.ma). Total project costs amount to $21.9 million equivalent, which will be financed with a mix of sponsor’s equity, and long-term debt. As a separate but related financing, the Company will receive up to $6.9 million in Output Based Subsidies from the World Bank (WB) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund under WB project called “Electricity Services for Rural Areas Project in Senegal (Project ID P085708, and GEF ID P070530)” approved in 2004 (www.worldbank.org). The ONE has requested IFC’s support for the Project in the form of an equity investment in Comasel St. Louis for up to 19.9% of the company’s equity.