TEA-LP’s Partnerships for Renewable Energy Education

The Transforming Energy Access – Learning Partnership (TEA-LP) is pleased to announce a partnership with several industry-leading software companies in the field of distributed renewable energy systems, including HomerPro, Xendee, and COMET. These software companies have agreed to issue heavily subsidised, or free, licenses to all the TEA-LP university partners who are delivering the TEA-LP mini-grids course, which was covered extensively in the Mini-Grids Training Workshop (MGTW) in Kigali from 4-11 September.

Xendee is an industry-leading software used for the design and optimisation of microgrids and distributed energy resources. At the MGTW, we were privileged enough to be (virtually) joined by Dr Rey Guerrero one of the principle engineers at Xendee. Participants at the workshop enjoyed two engaging sessions with Rey, and were taught about the fundamentals of the software as well as how to implement it in real-world applications through fascinating case studies. Xendee has generously offered licenses to our partners to support the training and skills development of Masters’-level students in renewable and clean energy. Workshop participants can integrate this cutting-edge software into their teaching, empowering their Masters’ students with advanced skills and a competitive edge in their career.

The Community Energy Toolkit (COMET) is a role-playing game built around a representation of a mini-grid system, intended to be used as an educational and collaborative planning tool in designing a community-sized mini-grid system. It was developed by Dr Scott Kennedy and Ms Ayu Abdullah from Energy Action Partners (ENACT), who were generous enough to fly all the way to Kigali to present an interactive demo of COMET with our partners. Dr Kennedy also delivered an enlightening session on the importance of community engagement in the successful development and implementation of mini-grids. In addition to granting our partners and their Masters’ students free access to COMET, ENACT have also agreed to work with those that attended the MGTW in delivering the unit in the TEA-LP mini-grids course that covers resource and demand assessment, which includes site selection, load forecasting, and productive use of energy.

HomerPro, another industry-leading software for the optimisation of mini-grids and distributed renewable energy systems, has agree to issue a license with 150 seats to TEA-LP for a greatly reduced fee. This will allow our partners taking the mini-grids course to share this software with their students, which can enhance the teaching and help students to develop in-demand skills and competencies for when they enter the workplace. This can empower the students to make a positive change in the clean renewable energy sector in their regions once they have graduated, helping to drive the clean energy transition across the continent.

Without the power of collaboration and partnership, none of this would have been possible. We would like to extend deep gratitude to the abovementioned software companies for their contributions, and to our partners for so eagerly taking it upon themselves to dive deep into these software applications and enhance not only their own skillsets, but also those of their students.