The Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE) is a decision-support tool designed to help cities quickly identify under-performing sectors, evaluate improvement and cost-saving potential, and prioritize sectors and actions for energy efficiency (EE) intervention. It covers six municipal sectors: passenger transport, municipal buildings, water and waste water, public lighting, solid waste, and power and heat.
TRACE consists of three modules:
- An energy benchmarking module which compares key performance indicators (KPIs) among peer cities,
- A sector prioritization module which identifies sectors that offer the greatest potential with respect to energy-cost savings,
- An intervention selection module which functions like a “playbook” of tried-and-tested EE measures and helps select locally appropriate EE interventions.
TRACE is designed with the intention to involve city decision makers in the deployment process. It starts with benchmark data collection, goes through an on-location assessment involving experts and decision makers, and ends with a final report to city authorities with recommendations of EE interventions tailored to the city’s individual context.
The tool has been developed by ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program) that is a global, multidonor technical assistance trust fund administered by the World Bank and cosponsored by 13 official bilateral donors.
TRACE is being updated and will be back online in the spring of 2017.