Sector Results and Learning:
Energy

This Energy Sector Results and Learning page is a repository of evidence generated by all MCC-funded energy interventions. To promote learning and inform future program design, this page captures monitoring data from key common indicators, showcases recent and relevant evaluations, and includes all agency lessons from completed energy evaluations to-date.

What Do We Invest In?

MCC has funded $1.5 billion in energy interventions as of August 2023. These interventions fall into the following categories: off-grid power infrastructure; on-grid power infrastructure; other energy infrastructure; and technical assistance.

Off-grid Power Infrastructure

These programs support the provision of electricity to areas that are not reached by the grid. This includes mini-grids and individual systems, such as solar photovoltaic systems.

On-grid Power Infrastructure

These programs address power generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure needs to promote the accessible, reliable, and sustainable provision of electricity.

Other Energy Infrastructure

These programs support non-electricity energy needs, including gas for cooking and heating, as well as energy efficient appliances.

Technical Assistance

These programs complement infrastructure investments to support affordable, financially sustainable, and reliable electricity service provision.

Benin Power Compact

This program aims to strengthen the national power utility, attract private investment into solar power generation, and fund infrastructure investments in electricity distribution as well as off-grid electrification for poor and unserved households.

El Salvador Compact

The Rural Electrification Sub-Activity aimed to improve access to the electricity network and increase use of energy alternatives to decrease indoor air pollution and improve health outcomes.

Georgia Compact

The Energy Rehabilitation Activity focused on repairing the north-south gas pipeline and supported research required to prepare for the construction of an underground gas storage facility.

Ghana Power Compact

This program aimed to provide more reliable and affordable electricity to businesses and households through investments in infrastructure, offsetting demand for electricity, and improving the capacity of regulators.

Indonesia Compact

The Green Prosperity Project was designed to increase economic productivity and reduce land-based greenhouse gas emissions. The Project funded 20 on-grid renewable energy grants and 26 community-based off grid renewable energy grants.

Kosovo Compact

he Energy Storage Project aims to support Kosovo’s energy security and transition to cleaner energy. The project seeks to cost-effectively smooth imbalances in the electricity grid, deploy additional energy storage, and strengthen the regulatory environment.

Kosovo Threshold Program

The Reliable Energy Landscape Project aimed to increase household energy efficiency, facilitate the switch to non-electric sources of heating, and bolster private-sector participation in the power sector.

Liberia Compact

The Energy Project aimed to rehabilitate the Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant to generate lower-cost and more reliable electricity; build capacity in the utility company; and establish an independent regulator.

Malawi Compact

This program aimed to improve the availability, reliability, and quality of power supply by supporting urgent rehabilitation and modernization needs of the power network, and addressing financial, operational, and governance issues in the power sector.

Mongolia Compact

The Energy and Environment Project promoted the use of energy efficient stoves to improve health by reducing air pollution and easing energy-related economic burdens related to fuel and health care expenditures.

Nepal Compact

The Electricity Transmission Project aims to increase domestic electricity consumption by improving the availability and reliability of electricity in Nepal’s electric grid.

Senegal Power Compact

This program seeks to strengthen the power sector by increasing reliability and access to electricity and improving the overall governance and financial viability of the sector.

Sierra Leone Threshold Program

The Electricity Sector Reform and Regulatory Strengthening Projects aimed to fully operationalize a restructuring of the electricity sector and enhance the capabilities of key power sector institutions in system planning, transparency, and accountability.

Tanzania Compact

This program sought to improve electricity service and coverage by increasing power transmission capacity, increasing electricity access and distribution, and improving the reliability and efficiency of power distribution systems in prioritized regions.

The Gambia Threshold Program

This program aims to assist the government in addressing the unreliable and inadequate supply of electricity. The program will focus on two projects: Power Sector Governance and Power Sector Operations.

What Have We Completed So Far?

MCC and its country partners develop and tailor Monitoring and Evaluation Plans for each program and country context. Within these country-specific plans, MCC uses common indicators to standardize measurement and reporting within certain sectors. See below for a subset of common indicators that summarize implementation achievements across all MCC energy investments as of September 2023.

113

megawatts of generation capacity added

4,750

megavolt amps of substation capacity added

7,987

kilometers of electricity lines upgraded or built

44,507

customer connections added by project

What Have We Achieved?

MCC commissions independent evaluations, conducted by third-party evaluators, for every project it funds. These evaluations hold MCC and country partners accountable for the achievement of intended results and also produce evidence and learning to inform future programming. They investigate the quality of project implementation, the achievement of the project objective and other targeted outcomes, and the cost-effectiveness of the project. The graphs below summarize the composition and status of MCC’s independent evaluations in the energy sector as of August 2023. Read on to see highlights of published interim and final evaluations. Follow the evaluation links to see the status of all planned, ongoing, and completed evaluations in the sector and to access the reports, summaries, survey materials, and data sets.

Go to our List of Evaluations to see the status of MCC’s energy sector evaluations

Highlighted Evaluations

Dozens of solar panels face the sun amongst a backdrop of mountains and a lake

October 1, 2022 | Indonesia Compact

Understanding the Sustainability of Off-grid Energy in Indonesia

Most infrastructure faced significant operational challenges.

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $474 million Indonesia Compact (2013-2018) included the $288 million Green Prosperity (GP) Project that aimed to increase economic productivity and reduce land-based greenhouse gas emissions. The project funded 23 community-based off-grid renewable energy grants totaling $85.3 million. Some were designed as community-owned renewable energy projects, while others were renewable energy components of natural resource management projects. These grants sought to substitute renewable energy for fossil fuels in remote and rural communities, opening opportunities for social and economic improvements through access to electricity.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

A bird’s eye view of an electrical substation, surrounded by power lines.

April 25, 2022 | Ghana Power Compact

Supporting Electricity Sector Regulatory Reform in Ghana

Tariff reform and expected changes in electricity regulation did not take hold 

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $316 million Ghana Power Compact (2016–2022) funded the $2.8 million Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project to ensure the sustainability of compact investments by supporting electricity sector regulatory reform, particularly tariff reform. The project provided tariff studies, technical assistance, and capacity building for Ghana’s electricity sector regulators. These activities supported the theory that an improved regulatory environment would lead to improved electricity quality and sector financial health, ensuring the sustainability of the power sector.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

A large power generator against a grey, cloudy sky.

March 17, 2022 | Sierra Leone Threshold Program

Reforming the electricity sector in Sierra Leone

Electricity utilities’ capacity improved, but sustainability is in question

  • Evaluation Type:
  • Evaluation Status: Final

MCC’s $40.5 million Sierra Leone Threshold Program (2016–2021) focused on establishing a foundation for the effective and financially viable provision of electricity and water services in Freetown. The $11.9 million Electricity Sector Reform Project (ESRP) aimed to improve the electricity sector’s institutional and legal frameworks, planning capacity, and operational efficiency. The $7.6 million Regulatory Strengthening Project (RSP) aimed to build the capacity of the new regulator, improve sector governance and support the long-term financial sustainability of the electricity sector.

Read Evaluation Details or the Evaluation Brief

Go to our Evaluation Brief page to see all completed energy sector evaluations

What Have We Learned from Our Results?

To link the evidence from the independent evaluations with MCC practice, project staff produce an MCC Learning document at the close of each interim and final evaluation to capture practical lessons for programming and evaluation. Use the filters below to find lessons relevant to your evidence needs.

  • Indonesia Compact | Green Prosperity: Community-Based Off-Grid Renewable Energy Grant Portfolio Evaluation

    Individual grants are not held to the same documentation and due diligence standards as a normal MCC project and therefore rarely have program logics and clear targets that are required to facilitate evaluation.

    Individual grants are not held to the same documentation and due diligence standards as a normal MCC project and therefore rarely have program logics and clear targets that are required to facilitate evaluation. The portfolio of grants was not defined during compact development so evaluation design had to occur after the grants were selected. MCC is working on a leveraged grant facility guidance document that will help address these concerns and move grant identification earlier in the compact development process.

  • Indonesia Compact | Green Prosperity: Community-Based Off-Grid Renewable Energy Grant Portfolio Evaluation

    It is unclear how to apply the concept of accountability for results to a grant facility.

    It is unclear how to apply the concept of accountability for results to a grant facility. In a facility with multiple programmatically diverse and geographically varied grants and when grants are identified midway through a compact and begin implementing shortly after approval, it is generally impossible to conduct a thorough and rigorous evaluation of each funded grant. Given this, MCC should identify what the agency believes grant facility programs should be held accountable for.

  • Indonesia Compact | Green Prosperity: Community-Based Off-Grid Renewable Energy Grant Portfolio Evaluation

    It may not be worth evaluating smaller or side activities that either do not directly link to the objective or were not designed as standalone activities.

    It may not be worth evaluating smaller or side activities that either do not directly link to the objective or were not designed as standalone activities. The peatlands portfolio was not a distinct portfolio of grants conceived at the onset of the GP Project; rather, after the project was designed and implemented, a subset of grants that had some peatland components were grouped together to create the peatland portfolio. In this case, the link between these grant components and the project objective was not very clear. At MCC, M&E is often tasked with determining how to fit the activity (or grant components) into the broader program logic to separately evaluate the smaller investment (in addition to evaluating the overarching program).
    In these instances, it may not make sense to evaluate the smaller components of a larger project or activity.

  • Indonesia Compact | Green Prosperity: Community-Based Off-Grid Renewable Energy Grant Portfolio Evaluation

    Monitoring multiple de-centralized small grants is difficult, which means data quality varies from grant to grant.

    Monitoring multiple de-centralized small grants is difficult, which means data quality varies from grant to grant. This presents challenges as the evaluator has to validate what actually happened instead of getting this information from the indicator tracking table or MCA documents. The evaluation ends up focusing on telling MCC what actually happened during the compact.

  • Indonesia Compact | Water Sector Reform Evaluation

    Keep evaluation questions to a minimum and targeted to the key outcomes of interest.

    Keep evaluation questions to a minimum and targeted to the key outcomes of interest. The evaluation scope of work included a total of 12 evaluation questions covering the three projects in the threshold program (Water, Electricity and Regulatory Reform Projects and the District Metering Area Activity). This resulted in a lengthy report that attempted to fully answer each question, instead of presenting a higher-level narrative about interim progress toward the overarching aims of the individual projects and program. Streamlining the number of evaluations to align with the evaluated program’s theory of change and with an emphasis on evaluating the achievement of the overarching objective can help the evaluator to produce clear and actionable evidence that can more easily feed into MCC’s decision-making and practice.