The Roles of Government and the Public Utility in Achieving Universal Access to Electricity

Although Mozambique is blessed with abundant fossil fuel and renewable energy resources, achieving the national goal of universal access to electricity by 2030 is a formidable task. This paper describes the current energy sector landscape in the developing nation of Mozambique and provides an on-the-ground account of the conceptual framework guiding the public utility in working towards the universal access goal. In particular, we describe the trade-offs faced by the public utility, Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM), as it attempts to operate as a viable efficient business (the commercial mandate) and achieve universal access (the social mandate), by 2030. The paper is organized into four sections, starting with a historical background, moving into a description of the access challenges from the utility’s perspective, then performing a comparison between the proposed utility reform path and the standard model of power system reform, and ending with a discussion of the risks and opportunities.