Urban energy policy
Introduction
Energy planning or energy planning is commonly understood as the process of developing medium and long-term policies to help guide the future of a local, national, regional or even global energy system.[1] It is often carried out by actors with explicit political power (national or regional governments, ministries), but can also be carried out by large energy companies, electricity companies or oil and gas producers. Energy planning can be carried out with contributions from different interested parties: state agencies, public or private electricity companies, academic institutions, consumers, entrepreneurs and other interest groups.[2].
In another definition, energy planning is the forecast of future energy needs and the actions to address them.[3][4].
Since 1973, the science of energy modeling (or energy modeling), on which energy planning is based, has developed significantly. Energy models can be classified into 3 groups: descriptive, normative and futuristic forecasting.[5].
Energy planning is often carried out using integrated approaches that consider both the provision of energy supplies and the role of energy efficiency in demand reduction (integrated resource planning).[6] Energy planning must always take into account demand resulting from population growth and economic development.
Planning and market concepts
Energy planning has traditionally played an important role in setting the framework for energy sector regulation (for example, influencing what type of power plants could be built or what prices would be charged for fuels). But from 1980 to 2000 many countries liberalized their energy systems, so the role of energy planning has been reduced and decisions have been increasingly left to the market. This has arguably led to greater competition in the energy sector, although there is little evidence that this has translated into lower energy prices for consumers.[7] Indeed, in some cases, deregulation has led to significant concentrations of market power, with large, highly profitable companies having a large influence on pricing.
Integrated resource planning
Energy planning approaches depend on the planning agent and the scope of the exercise. Several concepts are closely associated with energy planning. Resource planning is considered basic, that is, a prediction of what the energy sources will be in the future. Energy planning can be done assuming that demand will evolve in a "natural" (increasing) way, or that it will be reduced by implementing energy efficiency measures. The energy crisis of the 1970s ended a period of relatively stable energy prices and a stable supply and demand relationship. The concepts of energy demand management, least cost planning and integrated resource planning (IRP) emerged with a new emphasis on the need to reduce energy demand through new technologies or simply saving energy.[8][9].