Grant competition for piloting the first renewable energy communities in Moldova / Concurs de granturi pentru pilotarea primelor comunități de energie din surse regenerabile în Moldova

Rescom 2 /2025 Concurs de granturi pentru pilotarea primelor comunități de energie din surse regenerabile în Moldova.
Reg. no.: EoI25/02982

Launch date: 17 January 2025, 10:00 (GMT+2:00)

Deadline: 05 February 2025, 18:00 (GMT+2:00)

Procurement method: Expression of Interest

Category & Sub-category: Grants;Grants to Beneficiaries

Overview:

I: Context Specific:   

In the context of growing climate change and energy insecurity, the need for sustainable energy solutions has never been more urgent. Thus, UNDP Moldova, within the framework of the “Resilient Communities through Women’s Empowerment” Project, in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, is working together to support various local initiatives to improve local energy governance and energy resilience at the local level, by strengthening the capacities of different actors in this field.  

Through this call for grants, UNDP Moldova aims to select two civil society organizations to pilot the implementation of the renewable energy communities concept.  

Ultimately, at least 2 communities will be created and functional, based on the Regulation on renewable energy communities (DECISION No. 743  
of 19-12-2024) 1 . 

According to recent amendments to the Renewable Energy Law No. 10/216 2 , "renewable energy communities" represent an entity: 

1. a) which, in accordance with national law, is based on open and voluntary participation, is autonomous and is effectively controlled by associates or members located in proximity to the renewable energy projects owned and developed by that legal person;
2. b) whose associates or members are natural persons, condominium owners' associations, other non-profit legal entities, small and medium-sized enterprises or local public administration authorities of the first or second level, or of a special level;
3. c) whose main objective is to provide economic, social or environmental community benefits to its associates or members or to the local areas in which it operates, rather than to obtain financial profits;

The 2 selected organizations will benefit from a grant to mobilize potential members interested in creating a renewable energy community and provide them with all the necessary assistance both at the creation and registration stages and at the stage of equipping them with the necessary technical equipment.  

I II : Purpose and objectives:  

The purpose of this Grants Program is to train NGOs with experience in the energy field in piloting the concept of a renewable energy community. This goal will be achieved by achieving the following objectives:   

• Developing the internal capacities of selected NGOs in order to provide the necessary assistance to potential members interested in creating a renewable energy community. 

• Organization by selected NGOs of outreach, mobilization, consultation efforts of interested actors in support of the creation and operationalization of a renewable energy community 

Within the grant competition, 2 NGOs will be selected based on the evaluation grid presented below. 

Administrative costs for the team engaged in implementing the grant.  

Budget offered : 100,000 USD per grant  

The budget will cover three main components :  

• Capacity building and awareness-raising component for the establishment of at least one community per grant awarded; 

• The component of piloting the energy community concept (technical assistance and provision of equipment and services for the energy community selected by the selected NGO. Technical assistance refers to the provision of support in the development of document templates and annexes for the registration and operationalization of Energy Communities, i.e. - the statute for the Energy Community, the contract between the EC and the Distribution System Operators, the power purchase and performance agreement, the request letter to the DSO for verifying the possibility of creating the EC. 

• Administrative costs for the team of experts involved in the implementation of the grant  

Grant implementation period – 18 months 

IV: Tasks for NGOs under the grant contract:  

The selected NGOs will work at the local level and will provide the following activities: 

• Carrying out information and outreach campaigns for large-scale promotion of its benefits and the stages of creation and operation; the opportunity to benefit from support in creating an energy community,  

• Organizing local training activities on renewable energy communities: legal framework, forms of association, steps for creation, participation in the production of local clean energy, management of such an entity. 

• Pilot community selection – Following the information and outreach effort, an energy community will be selected (based on criteria approved by UNDP Moldova) at the initial stage. 

• Providing expertise and mentoring for the creation of the energy community, registration as appropriate, provision of necessary equipment (e.g. photovoltaic system, smart meter, batteries for energy storage); Technical assistance refers to providing support in the development of document templates and annexes for the registration and operationalization of Energy Communities, i.e. - the statute for the Energy Community, the contract between the CE and the Distribution System Operators, the energy purchase and performance agreement, the request letter to the DSO for verifying the possibility of creating the CE.  

V : Eligibility and Evaluation Criteria :   

Application files will be evaluated based on the criteria presented in the table below.   

As a result of the evaluation, 2 NGOs will be selected that will accumulate the highest score.   

VI: Eligibility of expenses:  

Eligible expenses : 

• Personnel costs (expert remuneration) 

• Expenses for consumables within the activity 

• Transportation expenses 
• • Communication expenses 
  • Equipment and service expenses for operationalizing the pilot energy community (minimum 50% of the grant amount)  

  To be considered eligible, expenses must meet the following criteria:  

  • To be disbursed in accordance with the approved budget and the legislation in force regarding the activity of Public Associations 
  • Be contracted and carried out during the validity period of the grant contract.  
  • To be confirmed by supporting documents.  

  Note: for all procurements from grant sources, a 1% rate will be applied  

  The following expenses are considered ineligible :  

  • Payments related to debt repayment, interest and loan fees. 
  • Fines, penalties and court and arbitration costs. 
  • Third party loans.   

  VII : Terms and Application Method:   

  The application documents will be completed in Romanian and the requested information will be presented according to the Model Form (Annex #A) and will be described clearly and in accordance with the requests in each section of the document. 

  The application form together with all annexes can be accessed on the UNDP Moldova website. 

  Contact details: Andrei Dudnic, communication specialist, project "Resilient Communities through Women 's Empowerment", stage II - contact phone: 060505109, e-mail: andrei.dudnic@undp.org . 

      Applications will be submitted between 15.01.- 05.02. 2025, 6:00 PM.   

  Complete files will be submitted in electronic format, by sending an email with the related documentation to the following address: andrei.dudnic@undp.org ;   

  Application messages must contain the following subject: "Application for NGO Grant____" 

  Application messages will contain the following documents: 

  • Completed application form – Annex #A (Attention! in Word and .PDF format signed by the legal representative); 
  • Budget – Annex B 
  • Registration certificate 
  • Extract from the NGO register no older than 3 months 
  • Copy of the organization's statute 
  • Organization CV 
  • Expert CVs  
  • Financial report for 2024 
  • Optional: documents confirming the described organization's activity in the field of EE and ER 

  Requests must be submitted via email and must not exceed 20 MB. Requests larger than 20 MB must be split into multiple messages, with the subject of each message indicating their sequence (e.g., "part 1 of 2").  

  All applications will be acknowledged with a response within one business day. If you do not receive a confirmation email within this time frame, please contact Mr. Andrei Dudnic , contact phone: 060505109, email: andrei.dudnic@undp.org 

  Incomplete applications or those submitted after the deadline will not be considered.   

  VIII: INFORMATION SESSION FOR APPLICANTS