Let’s talk energy conservation

The growing energy consumption, in recent years, has exposed the country to the potentially grave impact of perennial energy supply crunches.

Within the past decade, the hottest issues on the table have been the need to invest  adequately in energy to improve generation  capacity as well as upgrade transmission and distribution systems to ensure reliable supply. However, there has been very little talk about energy efficiency.

We think that savings, through energy use efficiency, must force a relook at traditional notions of energy security.

The outcomes of measures, aimed at efficiency, are making a strong case for treating energy efficiency as a resource and putting it on a level playing field with other energy resources such as power plants.

Sadly, the benefits of energy efficiency are on the blind side of utility regulators and planners. 

We know that energy efficiency can save both the government and consumers money and create jobs, while also helping to drastically reduce harmful greenhouse gases. Additionally, energy efficiency upgrades can eliminate the need to install or replace other expensive electrical equipment.

Treating efficiency as a resource is not yet an easy ride as Ghana is currently caught in the throes of energy supply insecurity and needs to hastily ramp up its electric energy generation capacity to match rapidly rising demand estimated to be growing at 10 per cent annually.

We are of the view that pushing energy conservation and energy use efficiency could, in the immediate-term, help to significantly reduce energy demand and, thus, provide more flexibility in choosing the most preferred methods of energy production.

That position automatically places energy efficiency at par with other energy resources which might be a difficult proposition for some planners to accept easily, but the round numbers on Ghana’s efforts at conservation and energy efficiency could make a compelling case.

In order to improve the challenging electricity demand and supply imbalance that confronted the country in 2007, the Energy Commission spearheaded the distribution of six million energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (Celia) to replace inefficient incandescent lamps. The measure led to peak electricity savings of 124MW, expressed in monetary terms as US$ 3.6 million per month.

In addition to peaking electricity savings, energy savings of 112,320 tonnes a day, or about US$1.2 million, was established. The Energy Commission estimates that the reduction in peak electricity demand possibly caused a delay in the investment in power plants.

Treating energy efficiency as a resource and moving its programmes into Ghana’s electricity market, though still not clearly defined, is generating a lot of debate. 

Grid electricity suppliers, until recently, have been state-run monopolies (with all the attendant inefficiencies characteristic of state-owned-enterprises) and have not had much incentive to ramp up enough electric supply to meet the greatest demand for energy and definitively avoid blackouts.

The option now is for suppliers (both public and private) to ramp up capacity to shore up reserves to prevent blackouts. Adding capacity would mean, among others, paying power plants for the maximum amount of energy they could produce  if called upon to do so. Their costs would naturally be passed on to customers.

Working energy efficiency into the electricity market is a difficult but important issue.