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Mains Paper 3: Economy | Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

Prelims level: Energy Modelling

Mains level: Move for energy modelling in India

News

India Energy Modelling Forum (IEMF)

• The NITI Aayog and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) organized the first workshop on development of the India Energy Modelling Forum (IEMF).
• The IEMF seeks to provide a platform for policy makers to study important energy and environmental issues and ensure induction of modelling and analysis in informed decision making process.
• The Forum aims to improve cooperation and coordination between modeling teams, the Government of India, knowledge partners and think-tanks, build capacity of Indian institutions, and identify issues for joint modeling activities and future areas of research.

What is Energy Modelling?

• Energy modeling or energy system modeling is the process of building computer models of energy systems in order to analyze them.
• 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.

Outcomes of the forum

• Discussions on energy modelling in India and the world explored how energy modelling can play an important role in decision-making.
• The panelists 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.