Curriculum Development for Advanced Energy Planning and Policy Analysis

Mongolia’s electricity and heating sectors face numerous challenges, including reliance on coal-fired plants and antiquated infrastructure that struggles to meet growing demand. The country’s low electricity tariff and reliance on coal both have hindered the adoption of demand-side management (DSM) and energy efficiency measures, resulting in emissions and urban air pollution challenges despite the country’s abundant solar and wind resources. To support the country’s transition to clean renewable energy while making energy more accessible to all, the USAID Mongolia Energy Governance (MEG) activity works with Mongolia’s energy sector, national government agencies, and other stakeholders with a focus on policy, regulatory, and institutional reforms to incentivize private investments, boost the use of new and advanced energy generation and management technologies, and increase resilience to natural disasters. MEG’s focus is also on the promotion of a secure, stable, diversified, modern, and self-reliant Mongolian energy sector.

Econoler, through its subsidiary Econoler USA, was mandated to research the current situation, existing capacity, and knowledge base in the country to develop a number of capacity building activities, including training courses on topics such as DSM and energy efficiency policies – specifically the use of energy efficiency standards and labeling (EESL) to transform the market toward energy efficiency.

Under this mandate, Econoler developed a number of capacity building tools and activities, including two specific training courses on the design, development, financing, implementation, and evaluation of DSM programs, as well as the design, development, financing, implementation, marketing, and impact evaluation of standards and labeling programs. Econoler also developed materials for presentations on DSM and DSM best practices at a number of energy-focused conferences and workshops in Mongolia. A number of pilot DSM concepts intended specifically for the Mongolian market were also developed.

The training courses designed by Econoler were delivered to over 60 officials from public and private agencies in Mongolia and were accepted by the Mongolian Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) as a part of the training for their mid-level and senior staff. Furthermore, Econoler’s concepts on DSM were taken under consideration for implementation in the budget year 2025 by the ERC and other Mongolian stakeholders.