Energy Modelling Platform for Africa (EMP-A)

October 13, 2021 - EMP-A is an initiative of the ECA and the OpTIMUS Community aimed at creating the critical mass of energy planning experts in African countries to support optimized investments for the energy transition to meet the continent’s growing demand for low-carbon, inclusive, and climate-resilient development pathways, capitalizing on the continent’s abundant energy resources. 

Two rounds of the EMP-A have taken place to date - namely EMP-A 2018 at the ECA in Addis Ababa and EMP-A 2019 at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The EMP-A programme during this period has witnessed a growing participation and resounding calls for more dedicated sessions. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, EMP-A 2020 was postponed to the current year and as such, EMP-A 2021 will now take place from the end of November to mid-December 2021.

EMP-A provides an excellent opportunity to acquire free training, access to discussion forums, and coaching skills in models and tools for energy planning needs. Although the EMP-A acknowledges that different countries and regions within Africa will require context-specific approaches, the overarching objectives of the platform are to:

• gather the energy planning and modelling community in Africa to share experiences, models, and data in climate, land, energy, and water systems,
• support policy coherence through human and institutional coordination and capacity in Africa for integrated energy modelling and investment planning,
• support the development of centres of excellence for energy planning in Africa, and
• promote efficient and widespread use of open-source modelling tools to support the implementation of the SDGs, the Paris Agreement, and Africa’s Agenda 2063.

The EMP-A is a collaboration of several institutions led by the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the ECA and including the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) Programme, ESMAP, GIZ, IAEA, Imperial College London, IRENA, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Loughborough University, OpTIMUS Community of Practice, Simon Fraser University, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, UNDESA, UNDP, UN-IDEP, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and the World Bank Group.