Exchange: A Participatory Gaming Approach To Community Energy Planning in Southeast Asia: Spreading Best-Practices on Community Engagement

Interest in decentralised renewable energy solutions is rapidly increasing, e.g. solar home systems and mini-grids in Southeast Asia. As conventional mini-grid planning tends to limit participation and exclude social and organisational success factors, planning methods and tools need to be improved and expanded by including communal knowledge resources in the planning process. The aims of the exchange activities are:

To increase community understanding of mini-grid design, management and operation
To incorporate user input and knowledge into system design and management
To demonstrate the “Mini-grid Game” as a participatory planning tool
To foster knowledge exchange among practitioners

In three rural villages in Malaysia, the Mini-Grid Game as a novel approach to energy planning will be tested in a series of four day-long interactive workshops. The game’s software uses networked computers or smart devices to simulate different household scenarios. The exchange activities will be implemented within six months; the workshop experiences (including video clips) will be disseminated through webinars and an online campaign.