The main objective of GET FiT is to enable East African nations to take a climate resilience low-carbon development path resulting in growth, poverty reduction and climate change mitigation. Currently, GET FiT has rolled out in Uganda (starting from May 2013); roll-out plans in other countries are still in plan phase. The programme is designed to address investment barriers in small RE projects by providing project owners additional cash flow during early debt repayment periods.
Funding contributions from Norway, Germany UK and the European Union (EU)
Implementer(s)
Uganda’s Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the German Development Bank KfW
Inputs and activities
1) Inputs: Finances, knowledge, etc.2) Activities: Commissioning of up to 170 MW of RE capacity (until 2018). Portfolio development, standardization of PPAs, grid interconnection support, technical assistance, evaluation and performance review, etc.
On which level are RBCFs used?
At project level
Disbursement linked indicator(s)
kWh
Program Design: Since the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) is not high enough to cover the electricity generation costs in Uganda, the GET FiT Program offers a top-up payment on top of the FiT in Uganda, e.g. US$ cent 1.4/kWh for hydropower and US$ cent 1.0/kWh for biomass. There are two “layers” of subsidy components for feeding electricity generated by RE technologies into the national grid. One is the usual FiT from the ERA in Uganda and the other is the top-up premium from GET FiT Uganda. However, it is important to note that while the usual FiT is paid out against actual delivery of electricity into the grids, GET FiT uses a different pay-out mechanism: 50% GET FiT premium is paid out on Commercial Operations Date (COD) and another 50% is disbursed through the first 5 years of operation.[2]
Purpose / Goal
Outputs
1) Increase small scale RE and capacity generation;2) Increased number of National jobs;3) Finance mobilized for GET FiT portfolio.
Outcomes
1) Improved private sector investment environment for renewable energy;2) Mitigation of energy shortage as well as reducing CO2 emissions;3) Improved local grid facility.
Impacts
Country pursues a low carbon development path resulting in low-carbon growth, poverty reduction and climate change mitigation.
On which of these levels are measurable indicators defined / formulated?
Output
RBCF Design & DLIs: RBCF components in GET FiT projects are on two levels. By feeding electricity into the national grid, the project owners are paid with FiT. This is the first level. In addition, GET FiT premium payment (top-up) is triggered by the COD. GET FiT has incorporated multiple development goals into one program. By providing additional cash, project developers could potentially benefit from improved financing situations / conditions; by granting energy access through the use of RE, it targets both energy access challenges and CO2 reduction challenges. The unit of DLIs is KWh.
Support Instrument
Type of support granted:
The primary support component of the GET FiT Program is the top-up payment provided to projects in terms of US$ cent/kWh (US$ cent 1.4/kWh for hydropower and US$ cent 1.0/kWh for biomass and US$ cent 0.5/ kWh for bagasse) for actual delivery of energy to the national grid over 20 years.
How is the payment related to the goal(s)?
The total support is front-loaded by discounting the total support over the 20 years and 50% disbursement of these funds through the first five years of operation.
Lessons-learnt: Various additional support instruments are provided through GET FiT. Support to standardization of legal documents helps to smooth the negotiations between project developers and their banks by standardizing PPAs, Interagency Agreement (IA) and Direct Agreements for small independent power producers. The partial risk guarantees facility has risk-mitigating components that enable developers to obtain finance more easily. In addition, there is technical assistance facility and interconnection support that ensures the technical capacity and infrastructure capacity are in place.
Blog » Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs Program (GET FiT)
Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs Program (GET FiT)
The main objective of GET FiT is to enable East African nations to take a climate resilience low-carbon development path resulting in growth, poverty reduction and climate change mitigation. Currently, GET FiT has rolled out in Uganda (starting from May 2013); roll-out plans in other countries are still in plan phase. The programme is designed to address investment barriers in small RE projects by providing project owners additional cash flow during early debt repayment periods.