From Access to Impact: unlocking livelihood transformation through COMET’s participatory energy simulations

The Community Energy Toolkit (COMET) uses participatory workshops and simulations to help communities in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific plan for the productive use of energy (PUE). By allowing households and micro-enterprises to trial appliances and tariffs, COMET provides developers with demand-side intelligence—such as demand curves and willingness-to-pay—to reduce the risk of under-utilisation and under-recovery of revenues. A deployment in Pos Titom, Malaysia, demonstrated how testing specific enterprise options like grinders and ice-making can create concrete income pathways and decision-ready inputs for implementers. Across 110 communities in six countries, this co-creation approach has been linked to higher early-life utilisation and improved billed revenue.

• The Community Energy Toolkit (COMET) addresses the issue of low early-life utilisation and underperforming revenues in mini-grids by using simulation-based workshops where users trial appliances, tariffs, and operating hours to generate demand-side intelligence.
• In Pos Titom, Malaysia, as part of the RENDANG project, COMET workshops tested specific enterprise tools—including egg incubators, ice-making, food dryers, grinders, and welding tools—against tariff rules and schedules to create income pathways and reduce payment uncertainty.
• Implementation of the COMET approach across more than 110 communities in six countries has consistently resulted in increased early-life utilisation, improved billed revenue, and enhanced system resilience.

APA

Özkan, O. (2025). From Access to Impact: unlocking livelihood transformation through COMET’s participatory energy simulations. Alliance for Renewable Electrification. https://renewelec.org/from-access-to-impact-unlocking-livelihood-transformation-through-comets-participatory-energy-simulations/

Chicago

Özkan, Okan. From Access to Impact: unlocking livelihood transformation through COMET’s participatory energy simulations. Alliance for Renewable Electrification, 2025. https://renewelec.org/from-access-to-impact-unlocking-livelihood-transformation-through-comets-participatory-energy-simulations/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Özkan |first1=Okan |title=From Access to Impact: unlocking livelihood transformation through COMET’s participatory energy simulations |publisher=Alliance for Renewable Electrification |date=28 October 2025 |url=https://renewelec.org/from-access-to-impact-unlocking-livelihood-transformation-through-comets-participatory-energy-simulations/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{zkan2025from, author = {Özkan, Okan}, title = {{From Access to Impact: unlocking livelihood transformation through COMET’s participatory energy simulations}}, institution = {Alliance for Renewable Electrification}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://renewelec.org/from-access-to-impact-unlocking-livelihood-transformation-through-comets-participatory-energy-simulations/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }