Track 3: Increasing Energy Access

Session 3: Integrated Resource Planning Revisited: Synergizing Energy Access Solutions in National Plans
The session will explore new approaches in energy planning at the national level, in order to effectively address energy access challenges in various countries. Discussions will focus on issues such how to effectively characterize energy access challenges; how to incorporate local inputs and alternate supply options; and how to ensure coherence between energy plans and national policies and programs, in order to enable better translation of developmental benefits to the energy poor.

Session 7: Business Models for Access that Spur Innovation
This session will highlight the various business models that have already been tried out in the field and are expected to facilitate the provision of energy access. The business models can be related to innovations on financial mechanisms, technical solutions, and institutional arrangements or modalities.

Session 11: Lessons from Renewable Energy Mini-grids for Energy Access
Renewable energy mini-grids are a proven approach for energy access, providing reliable and adequate electricity to people in off-grid and isolated areas. However, there are also issues and challenges that are associated with their operation. Speakers in this session will share the lessons learned in implementing mini-grid projects, particularly relating to issues of technology, finance, organizational design, and sustainability.
Session 15: Lessons from Renewable Energy Mini-grids on Islands
This session will build on the earlier session on mini-grids (Session 11) by focusing on the operational issues of mini-grids in an island setting. Speakers will present experience with projects employing different models, with a focusing on the experiences, results and latest development of successful mini-grid implementation on islands.

Session 19: Adopting Clean Solutions for Cooking and Heating
1.8 million people in Asia and the Pacific that are still dependent on traditional biomass fuels for cooking and heating. The enormity of these numbers underlines the need for the adoption of clean and efficient cooking and heating fuels. Speakers in this session will present information on different clean technology solutions for cooking and heating such as improved cookstoves, biogas systems, and LPG, and will discuss strategies for the dissemination and scale-up of these approaches.

Session 23: Characterizing Energy Demand for Last Mile Connectivity
The delivery of energy access services over the “last mile” is fraught with a range of challenges, each unique to its location. The focus of this session is on energy access approaches that concentrate on the last mile, serving the rural and the poor, and those at a distance from the grid, as well as cooking energy distribution systems. Speakers in this session will also address key attributes of energy access such as affordability and reliability, and will discuss the issues of poverty, gender and social inclusion.