Welcome to the EM website

The Environmental Manual
for Power Development

- an activity developed and maintained by 

the German Government via GTZ,

and a group of donors, 

with scientific support from Öko-Institut.

The original development of GEMIS began in Germany in 1987 - version 1.0 was released in 1989, and 1.1- 1.4. followed until 1992. In 1995 and 1996, versions 2.0 and 2.1 (with extended data) were prepared. All these versions ran under DOS. In 1997, GEMIS version 3.0 was released which runs under Windows^®.   

Since 1990, an English translation of GEMIS into TEMIS (Total Emissions Model for Integrated Systems) was available with updates for versions 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0, respectively.

Between 1993 and 1995,  EM (Environmental Manual for Power Development) was developed:  EM is similar to TEMIS, but the database was specifically adjusted to developing countries, and new features for power planning were added. Furthermore, the "check for compliance with emission standards" is an original EM feature. 

With GEMIS 4.0, all these models are integrated into one single software which offers all features, data, and user support (Help, Tours, website). Because of the new multi-lingual user interface and database, the GEMIS model can now fully switch between the English and German versions. The software of EM is no longer available.

Overview of the EM Project

Since the early 70ies, concerns about environmental impacts of energy technologies are raised world-wide, and there are different areas of environmental problems associated with energy:

To deal with these problems, one needs knowledge about energy and the environment - and it is no easy task to consistently manage these data together with the cost implications of alternative options.

In 1990, German GTZ together with the World Bank, and other donor agencies jointly started to develop a computerized tool for this task - Oeko-Institut gave scientific support for the model and data development.

The model was called "Environmental Manual for Power Development (EM)" which should help in the evaluation of lending projects, and also help partners in Developing Countries to manage energy/environmental problems, and their associated costs.

After a couple of years of development, testing, and case studies, the first version of this tool - the EM version 1.0 - was introduced in 1995 during a regional seminar in Manila to 10 countries in South-East Asia.
Since then, the EM was used in more than 20 countries all over the world, and four EM updates were prepared.

The EM is both a database for information on environmental and cost aspects of energy and transport technologies, and an analysis tool to compare these aspects in scenarios. The EM database is especially compiled for technologies in Developing Countries, and a couple of country databases is available as well.

The EM analyzes and compares airborne and greenhouse gas emissions, solid wastes, and land use, as well as internal and external costs associated with the investment and operation of all kinds of energy and transport technologies, including their life-cycles (upstream fuel-cycles, material acquisition).

The EM can run scenarios to compare single power plants or boilers, but also whole electricity generation (and transport) systems of a region or a country, and can identify the emission and cost tradeoffs between different options to meet future energy (and transport) demands.

To allow for all that, the EM is a computerized tool consisting of the following key elements:

• database with relevant information on energy and transport processes, including references for data sources, and data quality indicators
• scenario section in which a variety of energy and transport systems can be compared
• analysis module in which results from scenarios runs can be analyzed
• graphics to show results, and emission/cost tradeoffs
• interactive help system which includes user help, user guide, and documentation.

The EM was used in a variety of applications all over the world - from project analysis, utility planning and regional GHG mitigation analysis to sectoral environmental assessments of the World Bank, and Agenda 21 activities on the city level.

The EM Background: Problems of Energy & Environment

To support human well-being and economic growth, developing countries throughout the world face a daunting challenge: They have to bring about a rapid expansion of their energy infrastructures at huge costs.

This will require fossil fuels, but renewable energy sources and energy efficiency technologies could play an increasing role in meeting the expected demands.

However, energy projects and their support systems - from fuel extraction and storage to distribution - can also be major contributors to local, regional and global environmental pollution and degradation.

Therefore, in order to minimize ever growing environmental effects (with negative effects on human well-being and economic development), careful attention has to be given to the diverse environmental impacts of alternative energy systems.

It is crucial to make use of the best available information, analyses, and instruments in order to develop a transparent basis and framework for decision-making. Technical and financial assistance agencies should play a significant role in helping their partners in the developing world to analyze the best suitable and environmentally sound solutions for their future energy systems.

Because of the wide range of energy options and their varying environmental effects, there is need for a compact, easy-to-use, accurate and up-to-date evaluation tool that can be used by government agents, energy planners, environmental engineers, regulatory bodies, lending agencies, private investors, and public interest groups to:

• evaluate the environmental impacts of energy projects,
• identify environmental control options and suitable project alternatives,
• provide the information needed to analyze the trade-offs between the economic and environmental costs.

This is the purpose of the Environmental Manual for Power Development (EM in short). The EM project is an internationally supported effort to develop and maintain a computerized evaluation tool that combines both a suitable set of methodologies and an appropriate, expandable database.

The EM model is a WINDOWS® application for PC, allowing to systematically address environmental aspects of energy projects and systems as part of the overall decision-making process.

The computerized decision support system of the EM can be used world-wide for evaluating environmental and cost impacts of energy projects and system expansion plans, as appropriate.

The EM software is a useful tool in dealing with

• new energy technologies: it will cover a broad variety of prototypical data for power plants;
• costs of emission controls: its database offers up-to-date information on emission control technologies and legal standards;
• consequences of project alternatives: the EM helps to identify effects of other sizes and sites, fuels, etc.;
• supply- versus demand-side options: the EM also covers cogeneration and energy efficiency technologies.

The EM also helped to adapt its database to a given country or project conditions.