The Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP) at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre of Excellence in Green and Efficient Energy Technology (CoE-GEET), Department of Energy Engineering (DEE) at the Central University of Jharkhand (CUJ), India.

The Initiative and CUJ will collaborate for an initial period of 3 years till November, 2022 to primarily identify possible research, training, and education activities in India, specifically in the state of Jharkhand.

ISEP and CUJ will collectively and systematically work in tandem on the power sector in Jharkhand to:

1. Strengthen the governance process in the power sector by addressing the issues of policymaking. The Initiative and University will convene distribution companies, government officials, and other stakeholders to identify priorities for power sector improvements.
2. To understand best practices that could be implemented in the state’s power sector using the ‘Positive Deviance’ approach. The goal will be to identify crucial differences between successful and unsuccessful practices within and near the context of Jharkhand itself, and then apply lessons from those success stories to develop a realistic but ambitious long-term strategy for improvement.
3. To work closely with decision makers, non-governmental organisations, and other stakeholders to learn from the most promising power sector experiences and apply them to achieve concrete results.
4. Document experiences with implementation efforts to inform future policy, regulation, and practice. Prepare a blueprint for similar projects across other Indian states, to enable future action for a complete turnaround.

“The partnership with CUJ is a real breakthrough for the Initiative,” says Professor Johannes Urpelainen, the Founding Director of ISEP. “By partnering with a premier academic institution in Jharkhand, we are in a great position to expand our research and public policy engagement in the field of energy. We welcome innovative partnerships with civil society, business, and government entities.”

“Collaboration with ISEP has occurred at the perfect time. Jharkhand’s power sector is going through a very crucial transformation. We really look forward to this partnership which not only aims to analyse the problems, but also find implementable solutions,” says Professor SK Samdarshi, Head at the Centre for Energy Engineering at CUJ.

If you are interested in collaborating with us, please reach out directly to Prof Johannes Urpelainen (JohannesU@jhu.edu) or Prof SK Samdarshi (drsksamdarshi@rediffmail.com).