Development of ‘South Asia Energy Database and Expert System’ for promoting Data Analytics and enhancing trade in the Regional Grid

South Asia (SA) is amongst the fastest growing regions in the world and the energy demand in this region is continuously growing in a steep manner. In order to meet such a high level of growth, the electricity services in the region are required to be expanded with a still higher growth. The region has diverse energy resources as well as varied demand patterns. Under such situations, the energy trade amongst the different countries in SA can be of extreme importance towards optimization in the use of resources in the different countries as well as to bring overall economy and security at the regional level. To make the best use of the resources and the demand for diversity, the information plays a crucial role. The analytics in the form of Expert Systems can help convert this information into intelligence and action points. Taking into consideration these requirements, under USAID’s SARI/EI program, a digital energy database and knowledge resource platform, known as South Asia Energy Database (SAED), a first of its kind, has been developed and currently this platform is being operated and maintained by USAID’s other program South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP). This platform provides all relevant data related to the energy/power sector in the region at the click of a mouse and is working as a state-of-the-art, cloud-based data system on open-source software. This is equipped with very powerful analytics and reporting tools, through which a lot of intelligence and insights are added to the decision-making process, almost in real-time. This paper deliberates in detail, the objective behind the development of this utility, its design and architecture, the salient features of the expert system, deployment of the smart tools and analytics, and the advantages that are being derived from it by the different countries in South Asia, towards operation of the regional electricity grid, enhancement of the cross border electricity trade, as well as integration of the renewable and sustainable sources of energy in the different parts of the regional grid.