The Republic of Panama now has an Energy Information System (siePanama), which is a free and open access platform with a technological base that enables decision making in the short, medium and long term, on the country’s statistical information.
This tool is an instrument to promote energy planning by consolidating sector information based on standardized concepts and methodologies.
The siePanama tool was officially launched on October 28, 2021, by the Energy Secretariat of Panama, as part of the Program for Strengthening the Management and Dissemination of Energy Information for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is financially supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and executed by the Latin American Energy Organization (Olade).
At the virtual launch, Panama’s National Secretary of Energy, Jorge Rivera Staff, highlighted the importance of this new platform “we have developed for citizens and local stakeholders, bearing in mind the importance of having updated and validated figures, in order to offer a complete vision of the national energy sector.”
Furthermore, the National Secretary of Panama added that the “SiePanama will allow the analysis and understanding of the energy reality, the comprehensive planning of the short, medium and long term, in order to ensure the supply of energy in the national territory for the well-being of the population.”
For his part, the Executive Secretary of Olade, Alfonso Blanco, indicated that it is important to highlight the role that transparency has at the level of government management. “How information is a crucial element for government administrations to be accountable and to present information on the results and progress of the sector to the different actors of society.”
In this same context, he emphasized that through the siePanama information system, the different actors of society are provided with accurate, reliable and official information from the countries. Inputs that allow the different decision makers to have information presented in a modern way.
He added that “not only the energy sector specialist can read this information, but any actor in our society has the possibility of effectively interpreting the information from the energy sector.”
The executive secretary emphasized the progress made in Panama’s energy sector: “I would like to highlight the progress made by Panama in the development of its energy sectors, which is truly remarkable and an example for our entire region.”
Regarding the management of Olade’s information systems, he explained that “previously Olade’s information systems were closed and only 130 people in all of Latin America and the Caribbean had access to the information systems, now we have more than 5 thousand active users who are not only government actors but also from the private sector and academia.”
On behalf of the IDB, Arturo Alarcón, specialist of the Energy Division, mentioned that a key aspect for the IDB is the digital economy and part of what digitization means is to have quality, accessible and standardized information.
The National Director of Electricity of Panama, Guadalupe González, made a detailed presentation on the methodological harmonization of energy statistics, the automation process and capacity building. She highlighted that the new Energy Information System (siePanama) represents a milestone as it is the result of 50 years of work on the publication of Panama’s Energy Balance Sheets, information that is also available at http://siepanama.energia.gob.pa.
In the following video you can learn more about the content of siePanama.
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