From 30th July to 3rd August 2018, the technical team of REEEP attended an exchange programme with Energy Colleagues from GIZ India, Nepal and Afghanistan in New Delhi. The objective of the event was to establish common ground for similar programmes operating in South Asia, share experiences, enhance learning and find pathways for future collaboration. Integration of renewable energies into the grid was given special emphasis, as all the programmes were moving towards this direction.

Going beyond technical innovation – over 5 days many emerging topics such as designing energy efficiency awareness campaigns and delivering incubation support for clean energy entrepreneurs were tackled. Combined with content rich presentations and lively discussions with Resource Persons from GIZ, Government and Private Sector, a field visit to the Tata Smart Lab was also organized, which showed how state of the art technologies and digital approaches can ensure quality power supply.

For REEEP, the exchange event was especially beneficial as the Bangladesh and India share many common socio-economic traits, and India’s advancement in mass adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency over the last decade provides a learning curve for Bangladesh.