EVENTS

What can emerging research tell us about the challenges facing utilities in delivering reliable energy in low and middle income countries?

Hosted by the DFID-funded Applied Research Programme on Energy and Economic Growth (EEG), in collaboration with the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), this two day conference will showcase findings from emerging research on the challenges facing utilities in low and middle income countries in delivering reliable, sustainable energy to customers.

The keynote speaker will be Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, Chief Executive of Ghana’s Millennium Development Authority. He will be joined by an expert line-up of speakers reflecting experience across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, presenting on topics including: the impacts of unreliable electricity supply and the role of technology and utilities in increasing reliability; the impacts of non-technical losses and the remedial measures available; power sector reform, including tariff setting and market structures; dispatch diagnostics, and the technical and human resource constraints facing utilities.

Presentations include:

• Catherine Wolfram, Cora Jane Flood Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley: Measuring electricity reliability with 'GridWatch' sensors in West Africa
• ESMAP: Planning for efficient dispatch
• ESMAP: Closing Gaps in Women’s Employment in the Energy Sector – Initial Findings from Africa and South Asia
• Anant Sudarshan, South Asia Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago: the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab-led project The effect of smart metering on revenue collection, electricity access and supply
• Mekelle Institute of Technology: Monitoring and assessing power quality problems in Ethiopia: reducing customers’ dissatisfaction and economic damages in the distribution network
• Policy Study Institute: Strengthening the efficiency and development impact of electricity availability through tariff reforms and private sector participation: micro- and macro-level evidence from Ethiopia

See attached the programme agenda.