This technical guide is the fourth in a series of four technical guides on variable renewable energy (VRE) grid integration produced by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank and the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership (GSEP). It provides guidance on the role and benefits of forecasting as a cost-effective operational solution to manage the uncertainty of VRE generation and facilitate the integration of larger shares of these resources in the energy mix. The guide focuses primarily on the types of forecasting methods and how physical and statistical models are used for developing short- to long-term forecasts....
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the next 30 years will critically depend upon urban land use and infrastructure development actions taken across multiple sectors (buildings, energy, transportation, water-sanitation, and waste) in global cities. Integrated urban planning addresses a multiplicity of urban sustainability objectives (e.g., economy, environment, inclusivity, and resilience) (GPSC, World Bank 2018), including cross-sectoral and cross-scale linkages (Ramaswami et al. 2016) and connection of physical planning with social, cultural, behavior, and policy dimensions. The objective of this report is to review the state of knowledge (science) and the state of practice (models actually used by cities for...
The energy sector worldwide faces growing challenges related to rising demand, efficiency, changing supply and demand patterns, and a lack of analytics needed for optimal management. These challenges are more acute in emerging market nations. Efficiency issues are particularly problematic, as the prevalence of informal connections to the power grid means a large amount of power is neither measured nor billed, resulting in losses as well as greater CO2 emissions, as consumers have little incentive to rationally use energy they don’t pay for. The power sector in developed nations has already begun to use artificial intelligence and related technologies that...
The ongoing transformation of the global energy sector is opening possibilities for many developing countries to reach their energy access and service delivery goals in a lower cost, more sustainable manner, while combating climate change. New technologies, and new ways of using existing technologies such as geospatial data systems, smart grids, and smart meters are helping to develop resilient energy infrastructure and operate it more efficiently. These developments, combined with major cost reductions in renewable energy and storage solutions are presenting a strong prospect of a complete re-orientation of the energy sector towards a more decentralized, decarbonized and digitalized path....
The power sector remains especially vulnerable to natural disasters and extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. Planning ahead and investing in resilience to mitigate climate and disaster risks in the power sector can help minimize infrastructure damage and yield savings during recovery from a natural disaster. Conducting an in-depth climate and disaster risk screening (CDRS) during the planning and preparation stages of energy infrastructure projects is a crucial first step to building resilience. Data sharing, knowledge exchange, and awareness building on CDRS can substantially improve the screening process, while also helping to bring resilience to the forefront of energy...
The recent advances in battery technology and reductions in battery costs have brought battery energy storage systems (BESS) to the point of becoming increasingly cost-effective projects to serve a range of power sector interventions, especially when combined with PV and where diesel is the alternative, or where subsidies or incentives are used. Quantifying the economic impact of BESS requires a high level of temporal granularity in the analysis, because the time-steps required for a reliable assessment of costs and benefits are much shorter than the usual annual time steps of many power sector investment projects. In short, there is as...
Battery technology is evolving at a breathtaking pace. As performance improves and costs fall, batteries are already critical for consumer electronics, such as mobile phones, and are paving the way for the electric vehicle market. The battery revolution doesn’t end there. Battery systems are also transforming intermittent renewable energy - such as solar and wind - by making them much more financially attractive. Investors are taking notice. But while the versatility of batteries makes them attractive, it is difficult to determine their economic value. Understanding where and why batteries are most successful remains challenging, as each situation is different based...
In developing countries, battery storage is becoming a viable way to increase system flexibility and enable more integration of variable renewable energy. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) respond rapidly to control signals, are easy to deploy, and are benefiting from cost reduction trends. New battery technologies have valuable attributes that are well suited to the needs of developing countries. However, they have a rather short track record in terms of deployment and operation, and this can hamper efforts to reassure buyers and investors that these new technologies will perform reliably over their project life. Conditions found in some developing countries...
The project “Regional potential assessment of novel bio energy crops in fifteen ECOWAS countries” was started by the different project partners based on the need to make an overall assessment of a series of novel potential bio energy crops which can or could be grown and processed in the future in the 15 ECOWAS countries. This project fits in a broader strategic analysis of alternative energy needs and production, the key mandate of the main funding partner in the project, ECREEE. The project partners deliberately excluded conventional “bio energy” crops like sugarcane, oil palm, maize or sunflower as target crops,...
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