Energy Planning Tools for Humanitarian Practitioners

Many partners have developed a variety of useful tools to assist practitioners in the initial process of designing sustainable energy solutions to decarbonize humanitarian operations and deliver energy access to displaced people. New tools emerge frequently and in some cases, partners are unaware of the effective tools which have already been developed, leading to a duplication of effort in the creation of new tools.

The Global Platform For Action (GPA) on Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings has undertaken a research process to identify and assess the tools that are currently available and widely used by practitioners. The assessment is not a ranking. Instead, it aims to provide an overview of the key features of each tool, the types of solutions each can be used to provide, and what level of technical expertise is required for users.

Currently, the list encompasses the following:

• Energy Systems Planning Tools
• Energy Needs Assessment Questionnaires
• Carbon Calculators

This list of tools is a living document that will be continually updated as new tools are identified and partners provide feedback on those which are most useful in different contexts and for practitioners with varying levels of expertise. Partners interested in contributing to the research process can contact energy@unitar.org.

Energy Systems Planning Tools

Tool Name and Link	Developer	Uses	Type of Services Provided	Designs Provided	Customisable Parameters	Cost Estimate Included	Cost to Use	Other Comments
REact	Action Against Hunger and acciona.org, funded by EU	Community facilities and households
HOMER Enable Tool	HOMER Energy, funded by ESMAP
HOMER Powering Health Tool
Solar Energy Advisory Tool (SEAT)	ETH University in Zurich, Global Shelter Cluster, and Design to Production Agency