Leveraging Open Data and Analytics toward Universal Access: New Open Source Tool Supports Better Electrification Planning

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with the World Bank and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, hosted this webinar on the Electrification Pathways application.

When assessing how best to expand energy access, officials need to know where people are, what kind of electricity access they may already have, how close they are to low-, medium-, and high-voltage lines, and more. This is a difficult and costly analysis in countries where electricity utility providers do not have a clear picture of their networks and where data is hard to come by. Now, a new open source, web-based application aims to change that by cutting down the cost and time involved in electrification planning and informing universal access strategies.

This webinar introduced the Electrification Pathways application. The tool considers a variety of publicly available data to determine the least-cost options for bringing electricity to areas as small as one-square kilometer. Developed by the World Bank, KTH and ESMAP, the tool will be hosted in ENERGYDATA.INFO with data on three countries—Tanzania, Zambia, and Nigeria—and can be adapted for more.

In addition to an overview of the tool, the discussion will delve in to the role of GIS in electrification planning and other open data and analytics tools in the energy space.

ENERGYDATA.INFO is a new open data and analytics resource for governments, investors, companies, development organizations, and others working to accelerate affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. With more than 280 data sets and 14 partner organizations so far, the growing online platform is a place to both share and make use of energy-relevant data and analytics for greater impact.

Webinar presentations were followed by a question and answer session with the audience.