Context

NITI Aayog has announced the governing structure of the India Energy Modelling Forum (IEMF) following its constitution in July.

About

• The IEM Forum was jointly launched by NITI Aayog and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the US–India Strategic Energy Partnership.
• Part of the Sustainable Growth pillar of the US–India Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP), IEMF aims to engage Indian researchers, knowledge partners, think tanks and national and international government agencies and departments for modelling and long-term energy planning.

What are Energy Modelling Forums (EMF)? Energy modeling or energy system modeling is the process of building computer models of energy systems in order to analyze them. The Energy Modelling Forum (EMF) in USA was established in 1976 at Stanford University to connect leading modelling experts and decision makers from government, industry, universities, and other research organizations. The forum provides an unbiased platform to discuss the contemporary issues revolving around energy and environment.

Governing structure of the Forum

• The governing structure of IEMF will consist of an inter-ministerial and a steering committee.
• The inter-ministerial committee will be convened by NITI Aayog and headed by its CEO,and comprise senior officials from the ministries of petroleum and natural gas; power; new and renewable energy; coal; environment, forest and climate change; and department of science and technology. This committee will review the studies/modelling activities and provide directions and new areas of research.
• The steering committee will comprise representatives of the:
  • Government (ministries of environment, forest and climate change; new and renewable energy; statistics and programme implementation; Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council; Coal Controller’s Organization; Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell; Central Electricity Authority; and NITI Aayog)
  • Industry Associations (FICCI and CII)
  • Academia (IIT Bombay, Ahmedabad, and Delhi)

India and US’s collaboration on Energy

• India and the US have a long-standing collaboration on energy.
• The Sustainable Growth pillar, one of the four of the US–India SEP, is being chaired by NITI Aayog and USAID.
• This pillar brings together Indian and US researchers and decision-makers to collaborate in three focal areas:
  • energy data management
  • energy modelling
  • promotion of low carbon technologies
• IEMF was launched under the area of energy modelling.
• Through collaborations with global energy modelling forums, such as Stanford Energy Modelling Forum and Energy Modelling Platform for Europe, IEMF hopes to share and learn from best practices.