SLIDES: Multi-Dimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI)

Presenter: Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director, Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 8 slide

SLIDES: Multi-Dimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI)

Presenter: Dr. Morgan Bazilian, Deputy Director, Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 8 slide

Power planning in fragile and conflict-affected states

Traditional methods of energy planning are likely to provide results that may be inappropriate in fragile and conflict-affected countries. The risks of violence and damage, significant delays and cancellations in infrastructure projects, or projects coming in at very high cost, are rife in these states. Security issues can significantly hamper, or make infeasible, the delivery of power system plans. We look at how traditional power system planning and expansion models could be augmented to better consider the deep uncertainty associated with development in fragile contexts. We find that resilience aspects, combined with modular and incremental benefits of distributed generation technologies and systems, emerge as attractive options if the various risks of infrastructure development are included in modelling techniques. Investing in a diverse mix of supply types in the medium term and building a power system with redundancies or a higher share of local resources in the long term, is an effective approach to reduce vulnerability to conflict and socio-political fragility

Power politics and energy trade

The Himalayan divide In early October, the Indian Government declared its intention to sign the Paris Climate deal. By ratifying the agreement on October 2nd, India will always be remembered as a key country that helped push the global climate deal into force. Still, the work of limiting greenhouse gas emissions at a time where the country is growing and modernising rapidly is a colossal task; the burden of which will squarely fall on the power sector

Measuring Energy Poverty: Focusing on What Matters

The provision of modern energy services is recognised as a critical foundation for sustainable development, and is central to the everyday lives of people. Effective policies to dramatically expand modern energy access need to be grounded in a robust information-base. Metrics that can be used for comparative purposes and to track progress towards targets therefore represent an essential support tool. This paper reviews the relevant literature, and discusses the adequacy and applicability of existing instruments to measure energy poverty. Drawing on those insights, it proposes a new composite index to measure energy poverty. Both the associated methodology and initial results for several African countries are discussed. Whereas most existing indicators and composite indices focus on assessing the access to energy, or the degree of development related to energy, our new index – the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI) – focuses on the deprivation of access to modern energy services. It captures both the incidence and intensity of energy poverty, and provides a new tool to support policymaking.

Sociotechnical typologies for national energy transitions

The energy landscape is changing dramatically. It is populated by many different and discrete energy transitions happening simultaneously in across different sectors, with dynamically different drivers, and across varying locations. This Perspective proposes a new three-part categorization to help better understand the myriad sociotechnical changes being witnessed, which cut across user and market behaviour as well as institutions and technologies. We express energy transitions in three categories: Interim energy transitions, shaped by policies without necessarily public acceptance, mostly within non-democratic regimes. Deliberate energy transitions, driven by citizen-driven change without supporting policies. Transformative energy transitions stem from a combination of policy and citizen-driven change. The degree of permanence of these three transition types depends on the real and perceived benefits to energy users, sustained adoption of technology, and the regulatory regime. However, what is energy transition and why should we promote it

Paradigms and poverty in global energy policy: research needs for achieving universal energy access

This research letter discusses elements of a long-term interdisciplinary research effort needed to help ensure the maximum social, economic, and environmental benefits of achieving secure universal access to modern energy services. Exclusion of these services affects the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. The research community has an important, but not yet well-defined, role to play

Pandemic disruptions in energy and the environment

Public health measures implemented during the coronavirus pandemic have had significant global impacts on energy systems. Some changes may be ephemeral: as industries go back to work and supply chains relink once production resumes, energy use and emissions have and will continue to rebound. Some may be more durable, such as reductions in commuter and business travel and increases in teleworking. The crisis has exposed the persistent vulnerability of communities of color and those living in poverty, as well as highlighting weaknesses in just-in-time production systems and inequities of supply chains. The social and policy response to the societal impacts of the coronavirus crisis will affect energy systems and the environment in complex and dynamic ways over the long run. Strategic policy responses by nations, communities, organizations, and individuals could go a long way toward reshaping energy systems and impacts on communities and the environment. Here, we highlight themes for continued investigation and research into socioecological interactions between the Great Lockdown and pathways for recovery with a focus on energy systems and the environment

The Digital Transformation and Disruptive Technologies: Challenges and Solutions for the Electricity Sector in African Markets

The rise of disruptive technologies is profoundly transforming systems of production and management across sectors and industries, but primarily in wealthy countries. This paper considers how disruptive technologies could help improve power sector reform and development in African markets. In particular, it explores the role that might be played by the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and advanced analytics. After reviewing current trends in disruptive technologies, the paper illustrates the application of key elements with use cases in the areas of power infrastructure planning, power sector operations, and off-grid electrification. Finally, the paper looks at context-specific challenges to the widespread implementation of disruptive technologies. While disruptive technologies offer innovative ways of tackling some of the main challenges of traditional approaches to power sector development, their widespread adoption hinges on a concerted effort across public and private players to lend support to key aspects such as improved broadband connectivity, a vibrant startup scene and surrounding technology ecosystem, or simply the right to Internet access

Informing the Financing of Universal Energy Access: An Assessment of Current Flows

Energy poverty is widely recognized as a major obstacle to economic and social development and poverty alleviation. To help inform the design of appropriate and effective policies to reduce energy poverty, we present a brief analysis of the current macro financial flows in the electricity and gas distribution sectors in developing countries. We build on the methodology used to quantify the flows of investment in the climate change area. This methodology relies on national gross fixed capital formation, overseas development assistance, and foreign direct investment. These high-level and aggregated investment figures provide a sense of scale to policy-makers, but are only a small part of the information required to design financial vehicles. In addition, these figures tend to mask numerous variations between sectors and countries, as well as trends and other temporal fluctuations. Nonetheless, for the poorest countries, one can conclude that the current flows are considerably short (at least five times) of what will be required to provide a basic level of access to clean, modern energy services to the “energy poor”.Energy Access, Energy Finance, Financial flows