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Introductory LEAP training course: Introduction to LEAP & Energy Demand Modelling

This page shares resources for lectures #1 and #2 of an eight-lecture introductory training course on the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) modelling tool.
Multiple Authors
Andrew Watson / Climate Visuals Countdown

This training course is an output of the SEI Initiative on Integrated Climate and Development Planning, which leverages technological and methodological advances and strategic approaches to reach both climate and development aims. The initiative builds and reinforces capacity of in-country planners to achieve their goals, and to enhance their ambitions.

Overview

This page shares resources for lectures #1 and #2 of an eight-part introductory training course on the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) modelling tool for energy, environmental, and economic analysis.

Video recordings, presentation slides and an exercise for these two lectures are provided below.

Click here to go to the course homepage

LEAP Training Lecture #1: Introduction to LEAP

LEAP is a software tool for quantitative modelling of:

  • Energy systems
  • Pollutant emissions from energy and non-energy sources
  • Costs and benefits
  • Health impacts
  • Sustainable development indicators
  • Related externalities

It was created by SEI to support sustainable development through informing decision making and empowering stakeholders to perform their own analyses. It is well-suited to medium and long-term planning and facilitates data management and documentation, and communication with stakeholders.

This first lecture introduces LEAP’s key features, history, structure, user interface, and the terminology used in the tool.

A video recording of the lecture is provided below.

LEAP Training Lecture #2: Modeling energy demand with LEAP

LEAP supports modelling all energy consumption and associated costs and emissions in an area.

This second lecture shows how LEAP is used to model energy demand and introduces key definitions, concepts, and methods for this. These include projection methods, approaches to disaggregating demand models, and options for specifying energy-using technologies.

A video recording of the lecture is provided below.

Presentation slides for Lectures #1 and #2

The presentation slides for these first two lectures are provided below. You can also download the slides here.

Sida LEAP Training Lectures #1 and #2: Introduction to LEAP

Training Exercise 1: Energy demand modeling

There are numerous training exercises available in LEAP’s Training Area (login required – open access). These are available in multiple languages includingEnglish, Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Croatian, and Farsi.

These training exercises introduce you to LEAP, the Low Emissions Analysis Platform, and how it can be applied to energy and environmental analysis. The exercises are normally used as part of LEAP training courses (as in this course). They assume that you have some background in energy issues and familiarity with Windows-based software, including spreadsheets (such as Microsoft Excel).

Exercises for lectures 1 & 2:

  • Exercise 1: Introduction to LEAP:This exercisewill introduce you to the basic elements of energy demand and supply analysis, of projecting energy requirements and calculating environmental loadings.
    • This exercise is described in detail in chapter 1 of the “Main Training Exercises” document available in LEAP’s Training Area.
    • Areas to cover for this exercise:
      • 1.1 Overview of Freedonia
      • 1.2 Settings
      • 1.3 Demand
      • Sections 1.4-1.6 are covered after lectures 3 & 4.
    • Follow a video walk-through of exercise 1 below or on YouTube.

Continue the course

Citation Guidelines

Proper citation is important to the visibility and impact of the LEAP software system. We thank you for your commitment to cite LEAP correctly. Please include the following citation when publishing any results, analyses, tables or images generated by LEAP in any form (e.g. print, electronic, etc.):

Heaps, C.G., 2022. LEAP: The Low Emissions Analysis Platform. [Software version: 2020.1.64] Stockholm Environment Institute. Somerville, MA, USA. https://leap.sei.org

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