Madagascar Energy Situation

Situation analysis and framework conditions

Madagascar’s energy balance shows that about 80% of its overall energy consumption is based on biomass (mainly firewood 68%, charcoal 10% and other biomass 2%), 17% on petrol (transport), 2% on electricity (hydropower and diesel power plants) and 1% on coal. Until today the petroleum products are all imported. Even though Madagascar has oil in place the oilfields are not being exploited yet. The energy consumption per head is around 0,2 tons oil equivalent, which is one of the lowest in the world.
Access to electricity remains low with about 20% of the total population having access to this form of modern energy. In the rural areas, only about 5% have access to electricity. The installed capacity of electricity production in Madagascar accounts accordingly for some 650 MW only (production in 2008 = 486 GWh). The currently utilised capacity is even lower due to the poor efficiency following the lack of rehabilitation of some of the large hydro power plants. Six big hydro power plants (the biggest with an installed capacity of two times 30MW) provide the largest portion of the electricity production. Hydropower in general provides approximately 68% of the country’s electricity, the rest is produced by close to 100 diesel power plants. There is only a very limited national electricity grid between the capital Antananarivo and the city of Antsirabé with an overall length of approx. 180 km. The rest of the electrified cities and villages rely on isolated small and mini grids;

Energy demand and supply in the householdsector

For households all over the country, but especially in rural areas firewood and charcoal for heating and cooking, and kerosene and candles for lighting are the most important energy sources. Rural households spend on average 70€ per month, whereof about 11% or 8€ for lighting and batteries (radios, torches) and 5% or 3.5€ for cooking.
Only about 5% of the rural population currently have access to electricity, which shows a large discrepancy compared to the urban areas where more than 60% of the households have access to electricity. The per capita consumption of electricity is at a low level per capita.

Rural electricity supply

More than 80% of the population (total of 20 Mio people) live in rural areas which signifies an untypically low level of urbanisation in the African context. The increase of urbanisation is equally low.
Only 5% of this rural population have access to electricity. Those, who have access, get their energy mainly from diesel power plants in isolated small or mini grids. The power plants work usually only work for a few hours in the evening and prices per kWh are high (about 55 €cents/kWh). While there were initially exclusively these diesel-run electrification schemes, the sector has since 2007 shifted towards renewable energy projects with by now about 9 small hydropower-plants, 5 wind power plants and 1 biomass plant running village electrification schemes (In addition there are a few older plants and a few plants implemented by NGOs on the basis of renewable energies). Solar power is up to now only used for the electrification of some social infrastructure (including public lighting) and for single households mainly in the form of pico-solar-systems.

Institutional set up and actors in the energy sector

1.2.1 Public institutions

• Ministère de l’Energie (ME): responsible for the national energy policy and coordination of the activities in the energy sector. The Direction de l’Electricite et des Energies Renouvelables (DEER) implements the policy in the electricity and renewable energy domain.
• Agence pour le Développement de l’Electrification Rurale (ADER): established in 2004, responsible for ensuring the implementation of the rural electrification policies and the administration of related instruments, for promoting the provision of private-sector-services and providing technical advice to the private operators and for supervising the realization and financing of rural electrification projects.
• Office pour la Regulation de l’Electrification (ORE): established in 2004, responsible for the application of the norms, the quality of services, the principles of competition and the definition of the tariffs.