OSeMOSYS Training Session in Kenya
25 – 27 September 2024, Venue: The Boma Hotel. Facilitators: Eng. Michelle Akute (Lead), Monicah Kitili, Eunice Wambui, Joshua Oduor. Organisers: Martin Mutembei, Anne Nganga, Dr. Victor Rop.
At the end of September, the Kenya CCG Network, through funding from UK Aid, held a training programme for 38 master’s students from four universities: Strathmore University, Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Multi Media University. The training follows on from the agreement signed between CCG and Strathmore earlier this year.
The training was for the energy planning tools OSeMOSYS and FlexTool that are being used by the Least Cost Power Development Plan team and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. It was conducted and facilitated by members of the LCPDP Team which included Eng. Michelle Akute (EPRA), Monicah Kitili (EPRA), CPA Eunice Wambui (REREC) and Joshua Oduor (GIZ). All of these colleagues were examples of our ‘Training the Trainer’ initiative in which energy modelling participants become trainers in their own country.
Over the three days the group went from basic concepts to advanced modelling and hydrogen integration
Martin Mutembei introduced the first session by sharing the work CCG does in Kenya with national government, sub-national governments, partners in the energy sector, and consultant research institutions in the Special Interest Groups.
Michelle Akute gave the introduction to OSeMOSYS and energy planning. She took the students through planning challenges and how to capture these modelling. The session facilitated by Monicah Kitili, went into further detail on the OSeMOSYS tool. She took the students through the model development workflow, energy systems, naming conventions.
The fourth session was interactive with facilitators guiding the students through installing the OSeMOSYS clickSAND software on their laptop. Eunice Wambui took the students through data collection using a hands-on exercise on how to get the different components needed for the model to run. Students learnt how to get the starter data kit from the CCG website and Monicah Kitili then took them through the data and how to interpret it.
Day three was opened by Dr Saoke, the Director of Strathmore Energy Research Centre, who informed the students that they have an important role in cascading the modelling and energy planning work to other colleagues who will benefit from it.
Joshua Oduor presented on hydrogen including the Paris agreement in relation to hydrogen, the global energy demand and the potential for hydrogen production across various regions and in Kenya. Engaging the students, he held an interactive session on the role of hydrogen in decarbonization and the methods of hydrogen production and usage.
The training programme concluded on a positive note with interest expressed for more training and various students getting certificates from the OpenLearn Courses. 48% of participants were female and 52% male.
