Location: Republic A, Boston Sheraton

At the PESGM 2016 Meeting in Boston, the working group is sponsoring a session with the following speakers:

10:10 Jem Porcaro, UN Foundation: “Sustainable Energy For All Progress”
10:30 Dr. Rhonda Jordan, World Bank: “Geo-spatial electrification planning: what it is, it’s role and impacts to-date”
10:50 Dr. Martin Niboh, Torchbearers Foundation:“Is a Grassroots Development Strategy for Electrification Needed for SE4ALL?”
11:10 Gunjan Gautam, World Bank:“Micro Grids for Energy Access: Aligning interests and incentives”

Presentation summaries:

Jem Porcaro will discuss the nexus of energy access and healthcare with a particular emphasis on the role of decentralized renewable energy generation in improving the functionality of health facilities in resource constrained environments. The presentation will highlight the challenges and opportunities associated with electrifying rural and remote health facilities and touch on some efforts being taken under the auspices of SE4All to increase awareness and investment in this challenging and often neglected area of rural energy development.

Rhonda Jordon will explain how GIS-based electrification planning enables planners to utilize substantially more information on locational distribution of households, income level, etc., to form a detailed view on demand, and further to decide on the best way to extend the grid or rely on off-grid solutions. While GIS-based planning is not new to the power sector, this presentation will highlight recent innovations and provide examples of how it is being used to advance the SE4ALL agenda. In particular, this presentation will demonstrate that geo-spatial planning can potentially enhance traditional distribution network planning, inform higher level capacity expansion planning, guide the efforts of energy access practitioners and off-grid electrification entrepreneurs, as well as guide national policy decisions by helping governments compare different regions, select appropriate areas for grid and off-grid expansion, estimate costs, and set reasonable electrification target and timelines.

Martin Niboh will share his insights on the challenge and opportunity for SE4ALL. He represents Ignite Africa, which addresses the challenges posed by little formal education, poor infrastructure, few resources, tough social, civic, cultural, and political conditions, by developing a network of small groups (Torches), an integrated network of businesses and humanitarian projects, a consortium of work-study, tuition-free schools, an investment scheme, and within a legal framework that that enables to identify, recruit, train, and deploy indigenous rural humanitarian entrepreneurs who successfully develop businesses that sustain themselves and also sustain their humanitarian projects in their villages.