Benin: mobile money works to pay one’s electricity connection costs and to be effectively connected to the national operator, the SBEE! Already more than one million euros raised thanks to IED !

The PRERA project aims to extend the SBEE's electricity networks in the urban commune of Abomey-Calavi and 81 villages in the Atlantique department.

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Beyond its role as prime contractor for the supervision of works (posts and lines excluding taxes, distribution works, etc.), IED is in charge of the social intermediation of the project, to say to connect the most households, infrastructures and economic actors to electricity.

This consisted in concrete terms to addressing/georeferencing potential customers throughout the project area, then to provide to eligible customers (those positioned less  than 40 meters from the new network) a viable solution for paying their connection costs via mobile money, to avoid travel and administrative constraints.

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At the time of May 2021, IED identified requests for more than 40,000 electricity meters, and collected more than one million euros (more than 660 million FCFA) of connection costs, allowing more than 8,000 customers to be connected to a reliable and quality electricity network. And the numbers are growing every day!

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This million euros reached in 10 months is symbolic, and attests the commercial potential of this type of innovative intervention, of which IED is the designer, the developer and the manager!

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Introducing IED's new visual corporate identity!

As we move ahead, our values and identity remain, our image and communication modernize to reflect new evolutions.

Presenting our two flagship :activities

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- IED Consult, engineering and consultancy in power systems, renewables and access to services

- IED Invest, renewable energy systems' development, construction and operations

Innovating with consistency, deploying across countries, building on our people and colours, IED's trademark!

Construction of the Mbakaou Carrière hydroelectric power plant: installation of the 2 penstocks pipes and educational visit of students of the University of Ngaoundéré city

A new milestone was reached in the construction of the small Mbakaou Carrière hydroelectric power plant (1.4 MW, 11.2 GWh/year) in Cameroon, project carried by IED INVEST as project developer, and IPP (Independent Power Producer), in partnership with the IED Group, Cameroon's Ministry of Energy (MINEE), the Rural Electricity Agency, ARSEL (regulation), ENEO (distribution), with financial support from the European Union, the French Fund for the World Environment and the Pre-Financing Fund of the BGFI Bank.

Since April 15, 2021, the two penstocks in PRFV (Polyester Reinforced Glass Fibers) of nominal diameter DN1700 (1.7 meters), connecting the loading basin to the entrance of the spiral tarpaulins of the distributors of Kaplan turbines, are installed.

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The structures are located in the Adamaoua, on the Djerem River, at the level of the west arm, downstream of the Mbakaou control dam and will drift at the water intake a flow of 13 m3/s, over a length of 115m, for a gross fall height of 15m, and after turbinage, return to the river. The plant will power 8 localities, including the city of Tibati.

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The project goal is also to communicate and promote decentralized mini-hydropower electricity. On April 16, 2021, thanks to the organization and educational guidance of IED INVEST CAMEROUN, no less than a hundred students from the ENSAI and IUT schools of N'Gaoundéré city, were able to visit the site, to understand and see the concrete application of the principles of site development and layout of hydroelectric works.

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Start of the electrification project of the lakeside city of Ganvié in Benin

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Continuing the SBEE Network Restructuring and Extension Project (National Operator) in the urban commune of Abomey-Calavi and 81 villages in the Atlantic Department, IED has recently been entrusted with a project management mission for the electrification of the lakeside city of Ganvié, on the north shore of Lake Nokoué, at the mouth of the Sô River in southern Benin  (north of Cotonou). Regarding its relatively large size, it is often described in literature as "THE Lakeside African Metropolis".  Because of its specificity and its numerous inhabitants, it constitutes a space of challenges, which the Government of Benin wished to meet: transport and waste management,  sustainable reconstruction of domestic dwellings, redevelopment of economic and social life spaces. And these living conditions improvements do obviously require access to electricity!

The first part of this new project is consisting for IED to carry out the studies prior to the concrete electrification work:

  • Detailed pre-Projects of 22 lakeside or semi-lakeside communities,
  • Environmental and Social Impact study and Environmental and Social Management Plan of the area, in partnership with the BRLi study office,
  • Social intermediation activities allowing the addressing (including geo-referencing) of potential customers and their electricity network connection costs payments via mobile money, in partnership with the 2 mobile operators in Benin.

The so special topography of the lakeside city of Ganvié, the African "Venice", makes the exercise quite complex  and demanding, but exciting !  

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IED organizes distance training to adapt to global pandemic situation

Despite the international travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, IED is adapting and proposes to its clients to continue the training of energy sector professionals thanks to the video-conferencing and remote computer configuration system.

SInce few months, several training sessions on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), as well as on network and off-grid planning software (DAP, NAP, GEOSIM) have been held in Benin, Gabon and Madagascar from IED's office in France in order to allow participants from various entities to improve their skills on these software packages developed by IED. This is illustrated by the photo below, representing a training course given at a distance in the framework of the Geospatial Energy Planning project in Madagascar, financed by the World Bank.

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Despite these various constraints related to the current situation, IED teams are still mobile as much as possible and continue to provide training according to conditions.