In the joint working group meeting of the Sustainable Growth Pillar of the India-US partnership, an India Energy Modeling Forum was launched.
The forum would include knowledge partners, data agencies and concerned government ministries.
NITI Aayog will initially coordinate the activities of the forum and finalizing its governing structure.
Sustainable Growth Pillar is an important pillar of India-US Strategic Energy Partnership co-chaired by NITI Aayog and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Q. What does the Forum aims to?
Forum basically aims to :
Provide a platform to examine important energy and environmental related issues;
Inform decision-making process to the Indian government;
Improve cooperation between modelling teams, government, and knowledge partners, funders;
Facilitate exchange of ideas, ensure production of high-quality studies;
Identify knowledge gaps at different levels and across different areas;
Build capacity of Indian institutions.
Q. What is Energy Modeling?
Energy modeling or energy system modeling is the process of building computer models of energy systems in order to analyse them.
There exists energy modelling forums in different parts of the World.
Such models often employ scenario analysis to investigate different assumptions about the technical and economic conditions at play.
Outputs may include the system feasibility, greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative financial costs, natural resource use, and energy efficiency of the system under investigation.
Governments maintain national energy models for energy policy development.
Q. What are Energy Modelling Forums (EMF)?
The Energy Modelling Forum (EMF) in USA was established in 1976 at Stanford University to connect leading modelling experts and decision makers from government, industry, universities, and other research organizations.
The forum provides an unbiased platform to discuss the contemporary issues revolving around energy and environment.
Q. What are outcomes of the forum?
Discussions on energy modelling in India and the world explored how energy modeling can play an important role in decision-making.
The panellists laid focus on bridging the rural-urban divide and factoring in energy pressures from the informal economy within models.
Deliberations included a spotlight on how the impact of the evolving character of India’s cities, industries and especially the transport sector should be included in the any India-centric models.
The shift towards electric mobility, an increasing emphasis on mainstreaming of renewable energy options and overarching environmental concerns were also stated as key factors for determining India’s energy future.
