DV signed contract with GIZ for development of Micro Hydro Power Technician Certificate (MHPTC) Certification Board Establishment in Afghanistan

The Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) is the responsible Ministry for the development of the energy sector in Afghanistan. This includes the design of policies, strategies and sector plans as well as to bring them to decision making processes established on governmental side. Additionally, MEW has to encourage the different actors on public and private side to implement the policies and strategies, is to say to amplify the energy offer satisfying with that the increasing demand of energy by the population, industry, commerce and transport. This includes the energy production by traditional energy sources as well as the use of renewable energies, which is coordinated by the Renewable Energy Department (RED) of the Ministry is the main technical body responsible for supporting the REN sector in Afghanistan. Otherwise, the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) coordinates with the MEW the use of renewable energies for rural development within a specified capacity and defined institutional agreement.

The Afghan-German Cooperation Programme “Institutional Development for Energy in Afghanistan” (IDEA) is working with the MEW to support and strengthen the implementation of policies and strategies in the Energy Sector (Component A), to foster and develop the institutional cooperation mechanisms on national and provincial levels (Component B), to amplify the knowledge about renewable Energies and energy efficiency and to develop business models for operation of small and off grid power schemes as well as to contribute to vocational training for Operation and Management of them (Component C) and to develop private sector involvement and investment into the afghan energy sector (Component D). IDEA is based on a former program of Afghan-German Cooperation called: “Renewable Energy Supply for Rural Areas of Afghanistan” (ESRA). ESRA contributed to the development of small power schemes by renewable energies providing electricity up to 100 000 people in rural areas of Northern Afghanistan

Project Description

Rural electrification has been one of the most important priorities of the Ministry of Energy and Water in order to fulfil energy demands, support and develop local skills, and advance local economy. Hydropower has long been considered as an efficient resource of renewable energy with minimum environmental impact where the source of the energy is natural water, which is pretty much available in rural and remote areas.

Micro Hydro Power (MHP) systems are decentralized resources of energy supply that can be easily built, operated and managed by local communities and they have been recognized as best option for energy generation in developing countries. MHP systems are very much cost-effective and the technology is easily adaptable to off-grade and on-grade local conditions and creates employment.

In order to properly introduce and adopt the MHP technology in Afghanistan, comprehensive training programs need to be hold for MHP technicians on the introduction to standard MHP equipment, installation, operation, and maintenance of MHP technologies. Through these training programs, technicians will be certified as competent MHP technicians for a certain period of time. This level of training will open a higher level of training to Afghan nationals at professional levels. The GIZ- Institutional Development for Energy in Afghanistan Program (GIZ-IDEA) supports this concept to provide compete MHP training package for the local and in trusted employee to be certified by passing this training program by VTC.

Dynamic Vision Afghanistan has been assigned to accomplish the following tasks under this project;