Publication: African Utilities during COVID-19: Challenges and Impacts
Loading...
Published
2021-08-12
ISSN
Date
2021-08-23
Editor(s)
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred unprecedented economic disruption globally. The full scope of the virus’s impact on human health and economic activity remains to be seen, but two things are clear: (1) the most fragile economies, and most vulnerable segments of the world’s population, are least able to mitigate the impact, and (2) reliable and affordable utility services, electricity, water and sanitation, and internet and telephony, are critically important in slowing the spread of the virus. Many utility service providers in Sub-Saharan Africa were, in 2019, already under financial duress. The COVID-19 health crisis has and will continue to exacerbate such duress and jeopardize their ability to provide essential services. As the region faces its first recession in a quarter century, economic growth is expected to decline from 2.4 percent in 2019 to between –2.1 and –5.1 percent in 2020. Fiscal deficits are projected to widen amid falling government revenues. The harmful impacts on the energy sectors of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to far exceed those on other sectors.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Balabanyan, Ani; Semikolenova, Yadviga; Hankinson, Denzel; Nash, Stephen; Parcels, Christopher. 2021. African Utilities during COVID-19: Challenges and Impacts. Utility Performance and Behavior in Africa Today;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36179 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Analyzing Foregone Cash to Improve Utility Performance(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-08-12)The level of performance of an electric utility is determined by the soundness of its financial situation, the efficiency of its technology, and the quality of service it provides customers. Its financial underpinning is a balance of costs and revenue (from customer payments, government, and other sources). But revenue is not as straightforward as it might seem. The concept of foregone cash addresses the ‘cash on the table’ that pays for operations and servicing debt (revenue collected divided by the cost of operations and debt). The problem is the table may not have all the cash that ought to be there, such as money owed because of nonpayment’s by customers and money lost through inefficiencies in power generation or delivery. Consequently, there is a latent revenue that, if fixed, can provide vital improvements to a utility’s financial performance. This note analyzes the elements involved in understanding foregone cash in the context of cost recovery.Publication Modernization of the District Heating Systems in Ukraine : Heat Metering and Consumption-Based Billing(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-03-20)District heating (DH) plays a critical role in meeting basic heating needs in Ukraine, but the sector faces serious challenges that must be resolved to avoid collapse. For DH companies, the primary concern is financial sustainability. Companies lack the revenue to invest adequately in DH networks leading to lower quality of service and higher operating costs. For customers, the primary concern is quality of service and affordability. Artificially low prices have resulted in the continued deterioration of DH supply assets (and gas supply assets) resulting in lower heat supply quality. Low DH prices have provided little incentive for investment in energy efficiency. As a result, Ukraine is one of the highest energy intensive countries in the world. Ukraine, together with other Former Soviet Union countries, did not follow the path chosen by their neighbors to modernize their DH sectors. Many countries of Eastern Europe enacted critical reforms in the 1990s to address problems related to affordability, quality of service, and financial sustainability similar to those now facing Ukraine. Evidence from these countries suggests that these challenges currently facing Ukraine, while difficult, are far from insurmountable. This study situates heat metering and consumption-based billing in the context of the various DH sector reforms needed in Ukraine. It builds on the work of previous studies including the recommendations of the 2010 Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)-funded study, prepared by the World Bank that identified how to improve the DH sector in Kharkiv. That study outlined the potential for investments in DH systems in Kharkiv and other similar cities in Ukraine in both heat supply and demand side. It also recognized that policy changes needed to be initiated in order to create the enabling environment for this potential to be realized.Publication Utility Performance and Behavior in Africa Today(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-08-12)Electric utilities are central to the energy development agenda of Sub-Saharan Africa, as expressed in Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7), which commits the international community to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030. Over the previous two decades, utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa have made impressive strides in expanding the delivery of modern electricity services to households and businesses. The continent’s electricity access rate increased from 28 percent in 2000 to 48 percent in 2018, and generation capacity grew from 63 gigawatts in 2000 to 106 gigawatts in 2017. However, COVID-19 threatens to upend these gains, rendering the challenge of reaching SDG 7 even more urgent and, at the same time, even more difficult to achieve. In response, utilities will have to step up to the task of providing service to millions who now live without electricity, ensure reliable electricity for health facilities and schools, become credible off-takers for private developers of renewable energy, and promote regional energy trade.Publication Cost Recovery and Financial Viability of the Power Sector in Developing Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-01)This paper analyzes power utilities in 15 jurisdictions to understand the determinants of success for reforms aimed at improving financial viability and cost recovery in the power sector and the impacts of these reforms on metrics of sector performance. The analysis finds that electricity tariffs are rarely high enough to cover the full costs of service delivery, even where the cost of service is low, and that few countries adequately manage volatile costs and maintain cost recovery levels over time. Almost everywhere, power utilities often impose a substantial fiscal burden and contingent liabilities on government budgets. Over the past 30 years, cost recovery levels have increased on average, but progress has been uneven, with over half of the case study jurisdictions experiencing a decline compared with the pre-reform period. The record of reforms of price formation, especially tariff setting through regulatory agencies, is mixed. On average, countries that have made more progress on utility governance and decision making perform better on cost recovery. The paper concludes with proposed modifications to the conceptual framework underpinning the economic analysis of power sector reforms as well as immediate, practical implications for understanding cost recovery as part of the overall power sector reform agenda.Publication Keeping Warm(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-03)This report identifies the most viable heating options and related investment measures to meet heating demand in urban residential and public buildings in Tajikistan. The report provides an overview of the condition and performance of the urban heating sector and building stock, and assesses, in detail, the situation in Dushanbe and Khujand. The report gives introduction in section one. Section two gives an overview of the physical, institutional, and regulatory characteristics of the urban heating sector in Tajikistan and includes an analysis of the urban building stock. Sections three and four describe the heat supply and demand characteristics of Dushanbe and Khujand and estimate the unmet heating demand in these cities. Section five evaluates the available supply and demand side heating options and investment measures that can be implemented to improve the heating sectors in the target cities. Section six recommends priority investment measures for each building type, identifies related policy actions to facilitate implementation of the recommended investments, highlights key implementation issues, and describes the next steps necessary to implement them.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Digital Opportunities in African Businesses(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-16)Adoption of digital technologies is widely acknowledged to boost productivity and employment, stimulate investment, and promote growth and development. Africa has already benefited from a rapid diffusion of information and communications technology, characterized by the widespread adoption of mobile phones. However, access to and use of digital technology among firms is uneven in the region, varying not just among countries but also within them. Consequently, African businesses may not be reaping the full potential benefits offered by ongoing improvements in digital infrastructure. Using rich datasets, “Digital Opportunities in African Businesses” offers a new understanding of the region’s incomplete digitalization—namely, shortfalls in the adoption and effective use of digital technology by firms to perform productive tasks. The research presented here also highlights the challenges in addressing incomplete digitalization, finding that the cost of machinery, equipment, and software, as well as the cost of connectivity to the internet, is significantly more expensive in Africa than elsewhere. “Digital Opportunities in African Businesses” outlines ways in which the private sector, with support from policy makers, international institutions, and regulators, can help bring down these costs, stimulating more widespread digitalization of the region’s firms, thereby boosting productivity and, by extension, economic development. This book will be relevant to anyone with an interest in furthering digitalization across Africa.Publication World Bank Annual Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25)This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.Publication Egypt Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11-08)This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores the challenges and opportunities of improving the alignment of Egypt’s development goals with its climate ambition. The CCDR offers a set of policy options and investment opportunities that, if implemented within five years, can deliver short-term benefits in selected sectors while also creating momentum toward important long-term benefits. The options identified in this report provide: Cost-effective adaptation approaches to reduce the negative impacts of climate change; Policy interventions to improve efficiency in the use of natural resources, and complement the creation of fiscal space to finance projects that reduce the vulnerability of people and the economy to climate shocks; Actions that can help avoid carbon lock-in through low-cost policy changes; Interventions to strengthen the country’s competitiveness while reducing negative externalities (such as pollution) and incentivize Egypt’s move towards a low carbon growth path in a manner consistent with its development objectives. Overall, the report identifies opportunities to reduce inefficiencies, manage risk, and strengthen the foundation for increased private sector participation.