Grid Data Quality : The impact on energy system planning
January 12, 2026 by Marina Petkova
At the very beginning of 2026, OpenEnergyTransition, Datactivist, Dynartio and Py-PSA Earth hosted a webinar on the impact of grid data quality on energy system modeling.
We explored how open grid data quality affects real-world energy planning, from mapping to modeling, and combined three perspectives:
- how and why we can build a digital twin of a country's power grid with OpenStreetMap ;
- how we can assess the modeling impact of improved grid data through PyPSA-Earth use cases (esp. in Colombia) ;
- and how we can improve power plant datasets by matching multiple sources with PowerPlantMatching.
This webinar was created for energy system analysts, grid planners, infrastructure professionals, researchers, and anyone working with open energy data. It is equally relevant for OpenStreetMap contributors and tool developers interested in data quality, reuse, and scalability.
Grid data quality management is essential for planning and policy analysis. OpenStreetMap already enables levels of detail that many traditional datasets cannot. Improvements to OpenStreetMap grid data have a direct, measurable impact on energy system modelling, as demonstrated by PyPSA-based analyses. And while many approaches exist to improve data quality, comparing and matching power generation datasets is a concrete and effective one, and can be done efficiently with PowerPlantMatching.
To get more insights, find the entire webinar on YouTube :