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Achieving universal energy access remains one of the most pressing development challenges. While substantial progress has been made in electrification efforts over the past decade, millions of people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, still lack reliable, affordable, modern energy services. Access to energy is necessary for economic growth, health, education and climate resilience, yet energy planning and investment decisions are often hindered by outdated and poor-quality data, absence of spatial information and lack of collaboration.

Energy planning requires integrating multiple data sources across sectors and geographic levels. However, fragmented data ownership, inconsistent data-sharing practices and weak governance structures often create barriers to effective decision-making. Governments, utilities and private sector actors often struggle to access and utilize comprehensive datasets, which leads to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

Robust energy data governance that includes strong data policies, standards and practices that guide how energy-related data is collected, stored, shared and used is crucial in overcoming these challenges. Effective governance ensures that data is available, accessible, reliable, secure and leveraged for informed decision-making across the energy sector. Strong governance frameworks also facilitate collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including governments, utilities and development partners.

Experiences from WRI’s Energy Access Explorer (EAE) tool — the first Digital Public Good in the energy domain that analyzes high-resolution geospatial information to identify priority areas for energy interventions while streamlining data sharing and management — can demonstrate how improved data governance mechanisms can inform inclusive energy planning, on-the-ground implementation, enhance multi-sector collaboration and ultimately accelerate progress toward universal energy access.

Lessons Learned Across EAE-Supported Geographies

While the core components of energy data governance are foundational to improving energy planning, their implementation can vary significantly across different contexts. In practice, each geography faces unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to managing, sharing and utilizing energy data. These challenges often reflect institutional, political and infrastructural realities that require tailored approaches to data governance.

Lessons from various EAE-supported geographies provide valuable insights into how data governance frameworks can be adapted and strengthened in different regions and countries to support more effective energy planning and improve energy access outcomes.

1) Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration Improves Data-Sharing Practices

One notable example of effective energy data governance is the EAE working group in Ethiopia. This collaborative platform brings together national and subnational stakeholders, including government agencies, utilities, development partners and researchers, to address the data gaps that hinder effective energy planning. The working group has been pivotal in facilitating a dynamic integration of energy data with other sectors, such as agriculture and health, to ensure more comprehensive, data-driven decision-making. By establishing clear roles for data ownership and stewardship, the EAE Ethiopia working group has fostered trust and collaboration among diverse stakeholders, ensuring that data is shared transparently and used to inform inclusive energy access strategies. Similarly, the Tanzania Renewable Energy Association leads the EAE working group in Tanzania, bringing together key actors to strengthen energy data governance and promote cross-sectoral collaboration at the national level.

In Jharkhand, India, consolidating data from multiple sources onto a single platform enabled partners to conduct a data maturity exercise and identify key gaps aimed at transitioning from ad hoc, unstructured data use to more managed and optimized processes. The Jharkhand Space Application Center (JSAC) and Department of Information Technology were able to visualize a unified view using datasets that included health data from the National Health Mission, health and school locations from JSAC, solarization data from Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency, and education data from Jharkhand Education Promotion Council and the Ministry of Education (at the national level).

These lessons, drawn from the experiences in Ethiopia, Tanzania and India, provide valuable insights into overcoming challenges related to data fragmentation, governance and multi-stakeholder coordination, which can be applied to other EAE geographies.

2) National to Subnational Collaboration Improves Data Quality through Enhanced Local Data Ownership

In Kenya, the development of County Energy Plans has demonstrated the importance of subnational engagement in energy data governance. Through the EAE-supported process, counties have taken an active role in collecting, managing and utilizing localized energy data to inform their energy planning. This decentralized approach has not only improved the granularity and accuracy of energy data but has also strengthened local ownership, ensuring that planning decisions align with the unique needs of each county. The collaboration between national agencies, such as the Ministry of Energy and county governments, has facilitated better data-sharing mechanisms, reduced duplication of efforts and enhanced the overall quality of energy datasets.

3) The Need for a User-Friendly, Dynamic Energy Data Governance System

A well-structured and user-friendly data governance system is essential for ensuring that energy data is accessible, reliable and actionable. EAE’s backend infrastructure has been designed to facilitate seamless data integration, standardization and sharing across multiple stakeholders. By providing a centralized yet flexible platform, EAE enables governments, utilities and development partners to share, access and utilize high-quality geospatial data for energy planning.

Importantly, having data already in a clear shareable format further fosters collaboration by lowering access barriers and encouraging stakeholders to contribute, align and build upon each other’s datasets. The system’s design prioritizes interoperability and ease of use, reducing technical barriers and supporting a more inclusive data-sharing ecosystem.

4) Building Trust Takes Time

Establishing a strong data governance culture requires sustained engagement, capacity development and trust-building among stakeholders. In EAE’s early years, facilitating data updates often required external coordination and technical support. However, as local institutions have taken greater ownership of the platform, data updates now occur more organically and frequently. In several EAE geographies, national and subnational agencies are independently curating and updating datasets, demonstrating the long-term benefits of investing in local capacity and trust.

5) Political Commitment Is Foundational for Scalable and Sustainable Data Governance

While technical capacity, infrastructure and trust are all critical to effective energy data governance, lasting impact depends on sustained political commitment. Political will shapes the allocation of resources, the enforcement of data-sharing mandates and the authority of coordination platforms. In many geographies, data governance efforts stall because institutional incentives and political priorities are not aligned with open, collaborative approaches to data.

EAE-supported experiences highlight that cultivating political commitment requires clearly demonstrating how improved data systems contribute to national development goals, from universal electrification to rural development and climate resilience. It also requires ensuring that political leaders and senior decision-makers are both beneficiaries and champions of better data practices. Aligning data governance efforts with national strategies such as energy master plans or digital transformation roadmaps can embed these efforts more deeply into existing systems and ensure they are resilient to changes in leadership or institutional reform.

Next Steps for Strengthening Energy Data Governance

To strengthen energy data governance, national and subnational energy planning agencies could develop and enforce clear policies for data sharing and integration across sectors, establish common[1] standardized data collection and reporting formats, harmonize data such as place names and admin boundaries across space, sectors and time, and enhance collaboration between national and subnational data platforms.

In geographies where many locations share similar or identical names, such as within India (i.e., Ramgarh is a common name across multiple Indian states at different administrative levels) and Ethiopia (i.e., Goba refers to both a town and to other kebeles across Ethiopia), geospatial tagging and unique identification across departments can avoid ambiguity, ensure data accuracy and enable effective cross-sectoral analysis and planning. Moreover, shifting administrative boundaries, departmental boundaries[2] and the creation of new sub-geographies over time pose significant challenges for maintaining consistent time series data.

Without granular, location-specific data anchored in geospatial references, it becomes difficult to track changes or assess long-term trends accurately. By investing in capacity-building programs to improve data management, energy data providers can ensure accessibility while upholding privacy and security protocols and leveraging technology to enhance data collection and interoperability. Emphasis on building systems that are accessible, machine-readable and designed for integration across sectors and administrative levels would also be important.

Development partners and donors can play a critical role by providing financial and technical assistance to support robust governance frameworks and by fostering knowledge-sharing platforms that enable cross geography learning and best practices. Moreover, they can help broker institutional trust, strengthen long-term capacity within public agencies and encourage alignment between national priorities and global data standards. With sustained engagement, they can also help shift data governance from a project-based activity to a strategic public good.

Achieving Sustainable Energy Access

Improving energy data governance is essential for achieving universal sustainable energy access. As EAE-supported geographies demonstrated, structured governance mechanisms can enhance data quality, foster collaboration and drive evidence-based planning. Moving forward, stakeholders must invest in robust governance frameworks, leverage technology, and foster international cooperation to ensure that energy data is a powerful tool for sustainable development.

[1] In some departments, there are standardized guidelines and data collection forms; however, these are typically limited to use within the department. If another department wishes to use the collected data, it must first be pre-processed and harmonized for integration.

[2] In India, it has been observed that the service area boundaries of departments such as health, education and revenue do not align below the district level (i.e., beyond Admin 2). This misalignment adds further complexity to seamless data integration.