The Global Electrification Platform (GEP), an initiative by the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), aims to standardize and simplify the use of geospatial tools to create least-cost electrification plans. Originally launched in November 2019, it provides a high-level overview of the technology mix - grid, mini-grid and standalone solar - and investment required to achieve universal access by 2030 for each country.
The GEP is one of the few energy optimization modelling tools that is open source, publicly available, and freely replicable. Using the costs associated with generation, transmission and distribution, it calculates the cost to serve every unelectrified settlement with various technology options - e.g. grid extension, mini grid, or standalone solar - and then identifies the least-cost solution. A set of standardized scenarios is developed for each country, visualized in a user-friendly way on a web-based platform freely available on energydata.info.
For Sub-Saharan Africa, GEP 3.0 finds that annual emissions by 2030 can be reduced, depending on targeted electricity demand levels, from 69 - 193 million metric tons CO2-equivalent to 16-36 million metric tons CO2-equivalent with an increase in investment of only 9-12%. This shows that significant reductions in the expected additional emissions from expanding electricity access can be achieved at a relatively low cost.