Maldives
SAREP team’s scoping mission to Male was a successful mission where the team met key energy stakeholders including Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, their utilities (STELCO and FENAKA), their regulator (URA), Housing development corporation.
During the visit, the mission had a productive discussion with Mr. Ajwad Musthafa, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Technology, Republic of Maldives, on the country’s energy priorities and on the design of the technical interventions plan to advance clean energy deployment, modernize utilities, and attract and derisk private-sector investments. The team also met with Mr. Mohamed Rasheed, CEO of Utility Regulatory Authority, and Chairman of Fenaka Corporation Limited to discuss initiatives and pathways to transform the country’s utilities into high-performing utilities. These discussions aimed to inform the action plan for utility modernization that will be presented to the Honorable Minister of State during the visit.
With their high reliance on fossil fuels, electric utilities are among the main contributors to global GHG emissions. Transitioning to clean energy and modernizing utilities are key to decarbonization and achieving net zero targets. We are happy that the Maldives government is committed to modernizing its utility sector.
Visits were made to their smart city in Hulmale and to one of the islands, to understand ground realities on how they function, avenues for making it net-zero, etc. Later the team update the Minister on what they found in their scoping visit and recommended areas of interventions where SAREP can support. Government was amenable to the suggestions and responded positively to the proposed areas suggested, which included highlights for improving regulatory governance, making utilities high performing, grid stability and network reliability, air quality improvement, standards and labelling, support to smart cities etc. As next steps, the team is now awaiting a letter from the ministry mentioning identified areas of collaboration.
