Further to the constitution of the India Energy Modelling Forum (IEMF)—jointly launched by NITI Aayog and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the US–India Strategic Energy Partnership—on 2 July,NITI Aayog announced its governing structure on 8 October.
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.
The governing structure of IEMFwill 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 activitiesand provide directions and new areas of research.
The steering committee will comprise representatives of the:
- Government(ministries of environment, forestandclimate 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)
- Policyresearch organizations, think tanks and funding agencies(Prayas Energy Group; Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, CEEW, CSTEP, IRADe, TERI, GIZ, DFID, WRI, PNNL, IIASA).
Thiscommittee will shortlist policy issues to be taken up for study and might form various taskforces depending on the specific studies/modelling exercises to be carried out. The convener of this committee will be selected on a rotational basis for two years and will act as the interface between the inter-ministerial and steering committees and the working groups/taskforces. Prayas Group, Pune, will be the first convener of the steering committee.
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 USresearchers and decision-makers to collaborate in three focal areas: energy data management;energy modelling, andpromotion 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,IEMFhopes to share and learn from best practices.