It is widely recognised that access to and supply of modern energy play a key role in poverty alleviation and sustainable development. The emerging concept of energisation seems to capture this idea, and if implemented in its full complexity it should have multiple beneficial effects. To demonstrate this, an economic model is developed for an urban developmental context, drawing on the theory of urban ecosystems and illustrating energy and waste production and consumption issues with current South African data sets. This new understanding of the concept of energisation is then integrated into a local government energy planning process, by means of a checklist for energy planners, covering 18 aspects that between them affect all 7 identifiable tiers of the energy service supply network. A 6-step structured approach is proposed for integrating sustainable energisation into the first four phases of the advanced local energy planning (ALEP) tool. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.