Staging area 1
This staging area is intended for potential contributors. Please feel free to edit and update the description of your intended in person contribution as your ideas evolve. Some of the entries listed here may still be at an early stage of development. Not all suggestions will necessarily be selected or developed into lightning talks or presentations.
The deadline for submitting your potential contribution is May 31st 2026. After this deadline passes, the organizing group will screen the suggestions and develop the final program.
This is a wikipost that anyone registered with the forum can edit. You are encouraged to add your potential contributions directly here therefore. The order given is chronological downwards.
Note also that the topics and postings on this forum related to this event will be reorganized as the content builds. So just be aware that some URLs will break going forward. But the cape-town-workshop-2026 tag will persist.
Lightning talks:
Each lightening talk consists of a 6 minutes presentation followed by 4 minutes of Q&A. Profile your favorite project, tool, data, research findings, etc
When adding your lightening talk contribution, it should look something similiar to the following example post
Example
title : Using a global energy system model for a detailed country study
presenter : Martha Frysztacki (Open Energy Transition)
description : This presentation introduces a case study applying PyPSA-Earth for an energy transition study in Kazakhstan. We will show how we tailored a global open energy system model with high spatial and temporal resolution data to the specific country’s requirements. The novel approach avoids the time-consuming creation of models for every country and fosters collaboration, addressing the challenges of the energy transition together. Extended from this paper in Applied Energy .
code repository : GitHub - pypsa-meets-earth/pypsa-earth: PyPSA-Earth: A flexible Python-based open optimisation model to study energy system futures around the world. · GitHub
literature : Based on “PyPSA-Earth. A new global open energy system optimization model demonstrated in Africa”. Applied Energy . 341 : 121096. ISSN 0306-2619. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121096
Proposed contributions (please add your talk below 
following the above template/style)
title : Using a global energy system model for a detailed country study
presenter : Hazem Abdel-Khalek @Hazemakhalek, Martha Frysztacki (Open Energy Transition)
description : This presentation introduces a case study applying PyPSA-Earth for an energy
transition study in Kazakhstan. We will show how we tailored a global open energy
system model with high spatial and temporal resolution data to the specific country’s
requirements. The novel approach avoids the time-consuming creation of models for
every country and fosters collaboration, addressing the challenges of the energy
transition together.
code repository :
literature :
title : Supporting Open Energy Planning in African Power Systems
presenter : Albert Chitandula, Mwiche Simpemba (Open Energy Transition)
description : This initiative supports African utilities and system operators in strengthening their capacity to plan and operate climate-resilient, modern power systems using open-source energy modelling tools. By working with utilities and regional partners, the project explores how open tools can improve transparency, collaboration, and power system planning. Starting with pilot activities in Zambia, the initiative seeks to demonstrate practical use cases and support broader
adoption of open approaches to energy planning across the region.
code repository : GitHub - open-energy-transition/pypsa-zambia: PyPSA-Zambia: A flexible Python-based open optimisation model to study energy system futures for Zambia · GitHub
literature :
title : Mapping Energy Modelling Tools: openmod-tracker & Feature Inventory
presenter : Hazem Abdel-Khalek, Bryn Pickering (Open Energy Transition)
description : Open energy modelling tools are growing rapidly, but it is often unclear which tools exist, what
they can do, and where key functionality gaps remain. The openmod-tracker and Feature
Inventory map tools and their capabilities to improve transparency and coordination. This
lightning talk introduces these resources and invites contributions to expand coverage and
highlight gaps compared to proprietary software.
code repository :
literature :
title : Benchmarking Energy System Solvers: Insights from HiGHS and Open
Energy Benchmark
presenter : Sid Krishna, Daniele Lerede, Enrico Antonini (Open Energy Transition)
description : Efficient solvers are critical for large-scale energy system modelling. Recent benchmarking efforts, including developments around HiGHS, are helping the community better understand solver performance across different modelling problems. This lightning talk highlights the Open Energy Benchmark platform (openenergybenchmark.org) and ongoing benchmarking
activities that compare solvers in a transparent and reproducible way. The goal is to raise
awareness of these efforts and encourage broader participation in benchmarking and
performance testing across energy modelling tools.
code repository :
literature :
title: Developing a PyPSA-SAPP Model
presenter: Meridian Economics
description : This presentation introduces the development of a PyPSA-Earth based model for the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). It outlines how the model has been adapted to better reflect the region, including transmission representation and improvements to coal fleet modelling. There are additionally key data updates, such as revised demand profiles, improved technology assumptions for South Africa and a custom renewable energy development zone raster for the region. Additionally, we will present some key insights that have emerged from the model.
title: Collaborating on Open Energy Modelling for the SAPP
presenter: Meridian Economics
description : This breakout session aims to explore opportunities for collaboration around the PyPSA-SAPP model. We will discuss how open energy system models can benefit from broader engagement with contributions to data, methodology and scenario design. Participants are encouraged to share their needs, ideas and potential contributions.
Code repository:
title: Modelling and Improving Electricity Reliability in South Africa Using Satellite Nightlights and PyPSA-Earth
presenter: Nylan Ramnauth, Ravi van Os, Barcelona School of Economics
description : This presentation introduces a novel remote sensing methodology to model electricity unreliability in hourly power system models. By using daily observations of satellite night-light, we derive a proxy of electricity reliability at the settlement level. In parallel, we validate a customised PyPSA-Earth model of South Africa against historical ESKOM data. Our aim is to integrate this reliability measure, aggregated at the official supply/local area level, into the model to help improve investment decisions for unreliable grids in data-scarce countries. The model is designed to be data-agnostic, depending on the availability of granular data on outages. We welcome any collaboration on the methodology or its implications for South Africa and countries beyond.
Code repository
title: Grid Builder: An Open-Source Bridge Between Geospatial Communities and Energy Modelers
presenter: Emmanuel Bolarinwa, Open Energy Transition
The effectiveness of open-source energy modeling tools is often hampered by “siloed” data cleaning workflows. Researchers frequently duplicate efforts to fix the same recurring errors in regional grid datasets. Grid Builder proposes a unified, collaborative pipeline that acts as a bridge between three specific groups: the OpenStreetMap community, the “Map Your Grid” initiative, and the broader energy modeling ecosystem.
We introduce the modular architecture of Grid Builder, focusing on its ability to process diverse data streams into standardized GeoJSON and data packages compatible with multiple modeling frameworks. We highlight the integration of empirical insights specifically addressing the lack of localized line-type catalogs that were identified during recent grid impact assessments.
title: From Silos to Systems: Meet the M3 Modelling Platform
presenter: Madeleine McPherson, University of Victoria Canada
The M3 (Multi-Model Mapping and Modelling) Platform is an integrated energy systems modelling framework developed to support complex decision-making in Canada’s energy transition. Rather than relying on a single model, M3 links a suite of complementary tools that operate across different scales, sectors, and methodological approaches. Core components include capacity expansion modelling, macro-economic modelling, energy demand modelling, and high-resolution operational simulation, alongside input data infrastructure and output visualization tools.
What makes M3 novel is its integrated but modular architecture. Models exchange outputs—such as electricity prices, demand profiles, and system configurations—until results converge, enabling consistent representation of interactions between supply, demand, infrastructure, and policy. This allows the platform to capture feedbacks that are typically missed in siloed modelling approaches, such as how electricity prices influence end-use demand, or how demand shifts affect optimal generation and transmission investments.
The platform is particularly valuable for evaluating multi-dimensional outcomes, including system costs, emissions, reliability, and economic impacts. By integrating diverse modelling paradigms into a unified workflow, M3 provides policymakers with a robust, transparent, and flexible tool to assess pathways toward a net-zero, integrated energy system.
code repository: https://m3.cme-emh.ca
title: OpenGridTwin-Africa: An Open-Source AI Digital Twin Framework for Climate-Resilient Power System Planning in African Grids
presenter: Kwabena Addo, Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), Ghana
African power systems are increasingly facing complex planning challenges driven by rapid demand growth, renewable energy integration, ageing infrastructure, weak-grid conditions, and climate-related disturbances such as heatwaves, storms, droughts, and renewable-resource variability. This talk proposes OpenGridTwin-Africa, an open-source AI-enabled digital twin framework designed to support climate-resilient and intelligent power system planning in African grids. The framework integrates open-source energy modelling tools, grid simulation engines, climate data, and artificial intelligence methods to create a transparent platform for testing future grid scenarios, evaluating climate-related vulnerabilities, and supporting data-driven planning decisions. It is intended to help researchers, utilities, system planners, and policymakers assess how African power networks respond to renewable variability, extreme weather events, demand growth, and infrastructure constraints. The talk will present the motivation for the framework, its proposed architecture, possible open-source toolchain, African grid use cases, and opportunities for collaboration with the OpenMod community. The goal is to encourage the development of open, reproducible, and climate-aware modelling approaches that can strengthen power system planning and resilience across Africa.
Code Repository:
The code repository is currently under preparation and will be made available once the initial framework structure is finalized.
title: Modelling bioenergy: Accounting for carbon stock changes from foregone carbon storage
presenter: Timon Renzelmann, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Bioenergy is often modelled as carbon neutral even though its production causes changes in land carbon stocks. In this talk and discussion, I will make the case for integrating these effects into energy system models while providing examples from a European case study. I will also introduce a new welfare-grounded methodology of weighting emissions over time. This approach allows for collapsing complex time series of carbon stock changes induced by biomass harvest and regrowth into practical emission factors.
literature: in preparation for submission
title: SPLICE: Soft-linked Planning for Integrated eLectrification and Capacity Expansion — a PyPSA-Earth and OnSSET framework for Uganda
presenter: Corrado Maria Caminiti (Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy), Davide Fioriti ( Università di Pisa)
This presentation introduces SPLICE (Soft-linked Planning for integrated eLectrification and capacity Expansion), an open-source iterative framework connecting PyPSA-Earth and OnSSET to produce nationally consistent, geospatially explicit integrated energy and electrification plans for low and middle income countries, with Uganda as the primary case study. The name SPLICE reflects the methodological ambition of the framework: to join two planning layers that the existing literature has consistently treated as separate, stitching the supply-side network optimization of PyPSA-Earth to the community-level access planning of OnSSET into a single coherent workflow.
PyPSA-Earth serves as the core component of SPLICE, providing network-feasible generation expansion, transmission planning, and hourly dispatch analysis within a physically grounded network structure. Its ability to represent transmission constraints, renewable integration, and ramping limitations makes it particularly suited to Sub-Saharan African contexts where grid bottlenecks materially influence planning outcomes. OnSSET provides the geospatially explicit electrification masterplan, allocating technology across communities based on a least-cost backcasting logic. The two tools are coupled through an iterative workflow: PyPSA-Earth produces the nodal cost-of-electricity signal that drives technology allocation in OnSSET; the resulting grid-connected demand is aggregated and fed back into PyPSA-Earth to update the generation portfolio; the process iterates until convergence. SPLICE also introduces a methodological extension to PyPSA-Earth enabling the explicit representation of transmission lines under construction, allowing the framework to incorporate national development plans and evaluate investment sizing, timing, and prioritization within the optimization. Applied to Uganda under three scenario narratives, SPLICE demonstrates that the carbon constraint and network topology jointly determine both the long-term generation mix and the spatial distribution of electrification technology, and that endogenous investment decisions recover Uganda’s planned transmission corridors through cost-driven optimization alone.
Code Repository: GitHub - CorradoMariaCaminiti/SPLICE: Soft-linked Planning for integrated eLectrification and capacity Expansion · GitHub
literature: in preparation for submission
title: Identification of Offgrid areas for solar expansion energy markets in Ethiopia using EAE
presenter: Tesfu Kidane Aregawi (Ministry of Water and Energy Ethiopia)
This contribution presents a geospatial analysis of Ethiopia’s off-grid regions to identify where solar energy expansion is most viable. Using the Energy Access Explorer (EAE), the analysis evaluates areas with sufficient population density, ability to pay, distance from existing grids and strong solar irradiation levels.
The analysis identifies 13,274 km² and 4.1 million people with medium-to-high energy access potential, concentrated primarily in the Oromia, Amhara and Sidama regions. This contribution offers a practical framework for directing solar investments and shaping enabling policies to accelerate equitable electrification.
Code Repository: Identification of Off-grid areas for Expansion of solar energy markets in Ethiopia using energy access explorer
literature: in preparation for submission
title: Optimal Resource Mix for Indian Power Sector Decarbonization by 2070
presenter:Aravinda De Chinnu Arul Babu (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)
The presentation argues for incorporating the impacts of climate change on the capacity factors of solar PV and wind, given their weather-dependent power generation. It also considers the corresponding impacts on electricity demand and explains the need to incorporate emerging demand drivers, such as increased cooling needs under a warming climate, while estimating future resource mixes. Finally, the presentation motivates exploring alternative near-optimal resource mixes, since strictly cost-optimal solutions are often highly extreme; moving slightly away from them can reveal fundamentally different yet cost-comparable resource configurations.
Model: Capacity expansion model developed using the formulations of the open-source GenX model in Python.