About six Researchers at The Energy Center (TEC) have undergone training in Energy Modelling at KNUST, Kumasi. The training was conducted by staff of The Earth Institute in Columbia University, New York, US. The trainers, Edwin Adkins and Roy Hyunjin Han, were in the country for two weeks, from 5 February to 19 February 2011. 

The modelling tool, ‘Network Planner’, is an online tool and training programme for planning electrification and other network projects at national, regional, and local scales. The freely accessible tool is to enable even non-technical people to experience the infrastructure planning process and see the impact of different decisions on the community. By experimenting first-hand with web-based software, a user can understand on a map how changes in population, pricing and fiscal policy influence where infrastructure is built, who will get access and why different technologies such as off-grid solar, mini-grid diesel or bio-diesel and grid affect cost. Users can freely explore what-if scenarios by changing the many parameters and see on a map the least cost technology option for each community and how much it will cost. 

In the first week of the training, the researchers were introduced to the electricity planning model, including three main informational inputs (populated places, financial/demographic/cost parameters, and existing electricity infrastructure), plus the outputs (browser-displayed maps and data), and the "back end" description pages which show underlying codes.  In the second week, the researchers prepared and uploaded data, and run multiple model scenarios, including iterative changes in key metrics such as Household Demand, Diesel Fuel Cost per litre, PV Panel Costs and PV components costs.  

This training forms part of the TEC’s GIS-based Energy Access Planning (GIS-EAP) Project which is being implemented with funding from the European Union Energy Initiative - Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF).   Members of the GIS-EAP Project Team include Mr Francis Kemausuor (GIS-EAP Project Coordinator), Dr George Obeng, Dr Alfred Duker and Mr Frank Annor, all senior members of the College of Engineering at KNUST and Fellows of TEC. Other TEC Fellows and Associates who took part in the training are Mssrs Divine Appiah, Festus Boamah and Isaac Adu-Poku.

For a PowerPoint Presentation on the Network Planner, please click here.

To register and try your hands at the Network Planner, please click here.