INENSUS - the one-stop-shop for mini-grids

Mini-grid project development and operation is a challenging business. We support mini-grid developers and operators all across the developing world in becoming profitable businesses through our business consultancy services.
Our services cover all steps along the mini-grid project development chain ranging from project site selection, electricity demand projection, technical system design, community engagement and interactions, licenses and permits obtaining, business plan development with financial modelling, finance acquisition, development and optimization of delivery and sales processes, to M&E and O&M processes, as well as fostering of productive use of electricity. We put a strong focus on adjusting all strategies and approaches to the respective locally prevailing legal, political, environmental, economic and social conditions.
While our consultancy services can be requested by any entity working in the mini-grid sector, mini- grid developers from Sub-Saharan Africa may enjoy our services free of charge after succeeding with an application for support to the Green Mini-Grid Developers Help Desk of the African Development Bank (AfDB).
For further information click on this link to the SE4All GMG Developers Help Desk website

Capital grants covering parts of the CAPEX required for mini-grids reduce the private investor’s risk and increase economic viability of the projects. We support governments and funding agencies in structuring public grant funding programs that are adjusted to local constraints while responding to the needs of private sector.
Given that capital grants provided by funding agencies often cannot be paid to the private partners but remain in the ownership of the respective target country’s government, we have developed an approach for tendering of pre-developed and co-developed mini-grid projects. Winning bidders do not receive funding, but technical assistance for project development and usage rights for grant funded mini-grid assets. Following the split-of-assets-model, the capital grants are usually used to finance (at least) the electricity distribution assets. The systems are designed and implemented prior to tendering, and/or in collaboration with the winning bidders after the tendering process. This approach has been successfully applied with slight variations in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in conjunction with the development of mini-grid regulations. As a result, serious mini-grid investors and operators were attracted to these markets.
Such a funding mechanism must be well-adapted to the respective local political constraints as well as to the requirements of the respective funding organization.
In other constellations, we contribute to EPC tenders for publicly funded mini-grid systems or system components including drafting and evaluation of RFPs and preparing technical documentary for procurement of material and components, as well for construction and installation services.

Our main expertise is to develop and successfully embed mini-grid business models in its respective social, political and economic environments. Our joint ventures JUMEME in Tanzania and ENERSA in Senegal are the ideal laboratories for the development and validation of new business models.
We are continuously on the forefront of developing and testing new mini-grid business model related innovations enabling mini-grid customers to get access to the latest discoveries and proven strategies in mini-grid business. New ideas are developed and tested in close collaboration with JUMEME and ENERSA. The two main developments that have caught attention and gained wider acceptance in the sector so far are the Micro Power Economy concept including the split-of- assets model (created in 2008) which was adopted by many grant funding concepts, and the newly developed Key Maker Model which aims at adjusting mini-grid economics to the expectation of typical investors in developing countries (created in 2017).
The Micro Power Economy concept introduces balanced decision-making power in mini-grid stakeholder constellations. This includes public and private partners of a PPP, as well as mini-grid customers in the form of village power committees, or similar.
The Key Maker Model unlocks potentials for additional revenue sources directly linked to the mini- grid business. It makes use of the new opportunities created through the existence of reliable electricity and the managerial skills and financial resources of the mini-grid operator in harvesting locally available natural resources in close collaboration with the local community. The potential is even higher if the natural resources would not be marketable without the existence of the mini-grid in the first place. Examples for this are different agricultural produces, fishing or minerals. This way of using mini-grids as door opener for new revenue sources is a new trend which is currently being investigated by JUMEME and a number of other companies in the sector.
JUMEME Rural Power Supply Ltd. is a joint venture set up by the partners St. Augustine University of Tanzania, INENSUS, Terra Projects, and RP Global. The company was established in 2014 under the project Micro Power Economy Roll-out in Tanzania. The project is co-funded by the European Union.