Government to distribute 12 million LED bulbs

The Ministry of Energy has started a project to improve energy efficiency and manage demand to drive down the amount households pay for electricity.

The project, dubbed the Energy Conservation and Demand-side Management (EDSM), involves the distribution of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) for onward distribution to households, at no cost to them.

The Minister of Energy, Mr John Peter Amewu, who made this known at a press briefing in Accra yesterday, said already some 12 million of the energy-saving bulbs had been procured by the ministry, at a cost of GH¢200 million.

With the implementation of EDSM, he said, the government intended to encourage the efficient use of energy to address the increasing cost of electricity generation by targeting households and strategic institutions, “since their collective energy consumption accounts for over half of the national electricity demand”.

He added that the ministry would release the LED bulbs to the citizenry through all the MMDAs for redistribution to residential consumers in their respective jurisdictions.

Mr Amewu explained that the distribution of the bulbs would be hinged on the size of the metropolises, municipalities and districts and would not factor in the political or religious affiliations of beneficiaries.

He said metropolitan assemblies would receive 50,000 of the bulbs, while municipal and district assemblies would receive 40,000 and 30,000 units, respectively.

Presently, there are 244 MMDAs in the country.

Building local capacity

The distribution of the LED bulbs is also expected to help Ghana shift from the use of incandescent and compact fluorescent lamps, which consume relatively higher volumes of power.

Mr Amewu said the MMDAs had three months to map out strategies for the distribution of the bulbs.

Within the period, he said, the MMDAs would be expected to identify and select the delivery and distribution centres for the exercise.

Transparency

To ensure that the government achieved the intended objectives of distributing the bulbs, Mr Amewu said, there would be a comprehensive audit of the project by relevant government institutions a month after the distribution of the LED bulbs.