Scoping study on COREF by AMPERES Since 2021 Oxfam in collaboration with AMPERES and Heinrich Boell Stiftung has been exploring the potential for Community RenewableEnergy to advance a just energy transition in the Greater Mekong Region (GMR). Community Power Agency (CPA) assisted AMPERES in thedevelopment of the Regional CORE Power Association Prospectus.

AMPERES/ Oxfam achievements to date include:
• A case study review of more than 25 community energy projects in the GMR, Australia, Japan and Europe.
• A publication documentingcommunity energy in the GMR. The publication provides a conceptual basis for a Mekong-relevant definition of community energy and documents the challengesfacing deployment of community energy in the GMR.
• Three multi-stakeholder consultations on challenges, issues and priorities for community energy in the Mekong region, including input from civil society organisations (CSOs), village representatives and regionaluniversities.
• Established channels of dialogue between Oxfam/AMPERES and a number of world-leading associations promoting and delivering community energy, including Community Power Agency.
• A prospectus for a Regional CORE Power Association which outlines a structure and a set of priorities for institutional support to community energy inthe Mekong, including:
- Regional Association to promote and consolidate learning from Community energy projects in the Mekong region and to share resources.
- Sub-national Community Power hubs to promote and support villages/regions understand and advance options for community energy at the village-level.
- Village-level technical support and pilot projects to demonstrate improved governance of community microgrids in Cambodia and Lao PDR.
- Financing mechanism: initial design of a financing model which seeks to stimulate and underwrite community ownership in renewable energy projects.

The key finding of scoping to date is that community energy models, tried and tested in Australia, hold significant potential to improve electricity access in theMekong with a business model that centers more of the social and environmental benefit on remote communities (Figure 1).

However, ensuring success of the community energy model in the Mekong requires new kinds of organisational support for communities.
• At the regional/national scale there is a need for greater understanding, awareness raising andlessons sharing between CORE projects. The prospectus concluded that this would best be served by establishing a regional association for community energythat advocates in the policy arena for integration of CORE models into national socio-economic and power sector planning, whilst also setting technical design standards and sharing lessons between individual community energy projects.
• At the subnational/provincial scale there is a need for a practical, capacity building organisation that has the capacity to train localcommunities in how to design community energy projects, connect them with appropriate engineering service providers and apply and attractconcessionary financing to cover the high capital costs. In Australia such an organisation is called a “community power hub” (CPH).
The outcome of the project will be a model for expanding electricity access in Cambodia to achieve universal electrification, led by civil society, which supports and empowers communities to own and manage their own electricity access.
The outputs of the project are:
1. A PowerPoint summarising the high-level model, role <(>&<)> expected outcomes for COREF in Cambodia.
2. Assessment report (10 pages) of the suitability of the COREF  model according to the criteria of 1) adoptability, (2) accessibility, (3) affordability (4) efficiency,  (5) social acceptability; and (6) inclusiveness and collective impacts.
3. Cambodia COREF design document outlining:
o  proposed governance structure, COREF  roles and delivery pathways, staff roles and required knowledge, skill and resource base.
o COREF Implementation recommendations, including at least one appropriate Host Organisation.
o Principles of engagement from other stakeholders to initiate COREF
o Host Organisation role description and expressions of interest/ selection process.
o Documentation of mission activities and interviews.

This initiative is to contribute to an outcome of I-JET program which is to increased scale and funding for community-led and gender just renewable energy projects in Cambodia and region.