sustainability Article Application of an Institutional Assessment and Design (IAD)-Enhanced Integrated Regional Energy Policy and Planning (IREPP) Framework to Island States Kalim U. Shah 1 , Sashwat Roy 1,* , Wei-Ming Chen 2, Keron Niles 3 and Dinesh Surroop 4 1 Biden School of Public Policy & Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA;
[email protected] 2 Center for Applied Demography and Survey Research, Biden School of Public Policy & Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA;
[email protected] 3 Institute for International Relations, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago;
[email protected] 4 Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius, Reduit 80837, Mauritius;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-9724-087-813 Received: 8 March 2020; Accepted: 30 March 2020; Published: 1 April 2020 Abstract: The integrated regional energy policy and planning (IREPP) framework was devised to evaluate the feasibility of energy policies in meeting declared national targets. While the framework advances the comprehensiveness of the feasibility assessment by bringing in concepts like environment economic equity, the muted way in which institutional factors and capacity are addressed remains weak and ineffective. Here, we corrected this weakness by presenting an IREPP framework that is enhanced by integrating principles of the institutional assessment and design (IAD) framework. The IAD framework emphasizes the careful consideration of contextual factors, it draws attention to the full range of transaction costs, and does not presume a priori that one type of institutional arrangement. This IREPP-IAD framework was used to evaluate the feasibility of energy policies in three different island jurisdictions—Taiwan, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago.