Cities Have Started Using A New ESMAP tool to Quickly Diagnose their Energy Use, Says Program Manager, Rohit Khanna

October 18 2010

Cities are an important engine for economic growth and socioeconomic development. Rapid urbanization and strained infrastructure will lead to massive requirements for new energy sources and environmental challenges, a concern for most city authorities. “To help cities address this growing concern, the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) has designed and is implementing a tool which allows cities to rapidly diagnose their energy use,” said Rohit Khanna the Program Manager of ESMAP in his opening remarks at a knowledge sharing session for urban and energy practitioners held in Washington, DC end of September, 2010.

The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE) is an innovative decision support tool for quickly evaluating energy efficiency opportunities in cities. TRACE examines energy efficiency in six sectors: transport, buildings, water, public lighting, solid waste, and heating. Ranjan Bose a Senior Energy Specialist in ESMAP said the computer based user-friendly tool is tested and it works. He cited the Philippines where the tool was field tested and found to be effective in helping Quezon City authorities quickly assess their energy performance, identify underperforming sectors, and recommend measures the city can take to make improvements over a period of 3-months from February to April 2010.

The TRACE aims to enable cities to attain energy efficiency using locally tailored approaches to evaluate sustainable energy policies and investment options. However, a major impediment to assessing the overall energy implications of different urbanization patterns is lack of city-specific, disaggregate data. Furthermore, financial support and implementation monitoring is essential to a successful optimization of energy efficiency interventions in cities of most developing countries.

Additional presentations were made by urban and energy efficiency experts. Stephen Hammer the Executive Director of the Energy Smart Cities Initiative, a project of the Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy spoke about methods used to engage city authorities and estimate energy savings potential of cities using the TRACE. Meanwhile, Byron Stigge a building engineer and city planner outlined determinants used in the tool in selecting a sector with the highest potential of energy savings in a given city.

The knowledge sharing session is the first in a series of outreach efforts to disseminate the TRACE to cities and to various development stakeholders. The event brought together about 30 participants mainly professionals and practitioners in climate change, energy, and urban development sectors.

Looking ahead, in partnership with the World Bank, ESMAP will pilot test the city energy use assessment tool in a city. Thereafter, ESMAP will deploy the tool in several cities in addition to building capacity of global partners and in-country institutions.

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