Energy Access Explorer (EAE) – A Tool for Supporting Integrated, and Inclusive Planning in Development Initiatives.

A visual representation of key stakeholders who can leverage the platform for energy access and development.

Energy access data are scattered across various organization databases. Access to reliable data has been a constraint to development, affecting all sectors and this situation contributes to the well-being of people in the community.   As such there is a need for a tool that will support data-driven market expansion strategies.  This is a greater task required to put all data in place to support access by the public for various development activities. 

Energy Access Explorer (EAE)is the first, open-source, online, and interactive geospatial platform that enables energy planners, clean energy entrepreneurs, donors, and development institutions to identify high-priority areas for energy access interventions. Energy Access Explorer(EAE) also functions as a dynamic information system, reducing software engineering and data transaction costs for both data providers and users and facilitating data management and governance.  Energy Access Explorer, or EAE, is an online, interactive platform that will compile data from the energy sector and other sectors and avail them to the public for the development of different sectors of the economy.

Energy Access Explorer synthesizes and analyzes more than 50 geographic data sets (per geography) on both energy supply and demand. It runs a multi-criteria analysis that uses location-specific resource availability and infrastructure data to represent energy supply. It also incorporates demographic data and data on social and productive uses to visualize demand for energy services. Together, these supply and demand indicators enable more comprehensive energy planning. Spatial analysis tools, including multi-criteria analysis, overlays, filters, and buffer zones help users identify and prioritize areas where energy access can be expanded.

Energy Access Explorer provides a data-driven approach to expand energy access through a simplified user interface that identifies market opportunities for both the public and private sectors.

There is a high cost-saving saving benefit to using the Energy Access Explorer. The fact that one can sit at the office and generate essential information on demand and target market supply is exciting.

Energy Access Explorer will be critical for facilitating planners to access data on load centers, energy resource availability, and infrastructure, promptly. This is a platform that will link the stakeholders that generate data with the ones that use it. EAE is likely to become very critical when it comes to energy planning as it will consider the spatial dimension of energy systems and will inform the other planning tools (demand forecasting, short-term optimization, and long-term expansion) that are currently being used in Tanzania.

With Energy Access Explorer, you don’t need GIS software to overlay some layers, such as solar potential, population density, network data, and carry out analysis. All you need is an Internet browser. Stakeholders in the energy sector should make use of the platform to make informed decisions in the sector.

Clean energy enterprises(whether mini-grid developers or SHS providers)can use EAE to generate customized Multi-Criteria Analyses (MCAs) to identify areas where access to energy should be prioritized. Energy Access Explorer (EAE) synthesizes and analyzes several geospatial datasets on both energy demand and supply. More specifically, data on the demographics and social productive uses of energy are used to represent current or potential demand. Data on power infrastructure and energy resources are available to visualize and analyze current or potential supply. Energy Access Explorer (EAE) Tanzania currently includes more than 70 datasets.