How much energy we need for a decent standard of living for everyone is a question at the heart of energy planning, but rarely addressed. Generally, such estimation is based on a desired gross domestic product growth. However, even achieving this GDP may not necessarily ensure the satisfaction of everyone’s basic needs. Energy planning should link energy and its end-use and end-user directly, promoting equity, and providing a better monitoring framework for energy use. End-use focused, bottom-up, disaggregated energy planning is such an approach and we urge that this should be the basis of energy planning in the country.
