The fourth SAMSET Network meeting was held in Mbale, Uganda on the 18th-21st May 2015.
As usual, this meeting brought together members from the SAMSET project partners as well as representatives from partner municipalities in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. The objectives of this meeting were to strategise further actions and support with a view to the future, and developing plans for the way forward within the project. A number of energy strategies are now being developed within the six municipality partners.
Current work in Cape Town and Polokwane municipalities is heavily linked with modelling, particularly in the case of Cape Town. LEAP modelling has been used extensively by Cape Town municipality, and the efficiencies generated by the models are informing on-the-ground projects. The results have also been used to update the city’s Energy Futures Report, an approach the project team considers useful in translating technical information to different stakeholders. More detailed electricity consumption data collection in Polokwane is providing a more nuanced picture of the areas to be targeted for efficiency savings (without industry distorting the overall picture), and the SAMSET project is now being championed by the city’s technical department.
In Ghana, the State of Energy Validation workshops held with both Ga East and Awutu Senya municipalities received good attendance and media coverage, and the concept of sustainable energy transitions is now being included in the medium-term development plans of the municipalities. Both municipalities are also keen to work with the SAMSET team in incorporating energy-efficient building measures into new building design codes.
Ugandan SAMSET team and partner municipality objectives involve data-sharing on new renewable energy technologies, notably the cost of implementing biogas projects for Jinja municipality for reprocessing agro-industry waste, as well as supporting Kasese in implementing public-private partnerships for new micro-power installations in the municipality. Strengthening data on the energy situation in both municipalities is also a core goal, identifying for example the distribution of cooking fuels and assessing reasons for this, as well as sector-specific energy consumption information.
