Power Affordability Concern Among African Consumers Despite Accessibility: IEA

Concern Among Africa Consumers Despite Accessibility: IEA. Photo: Pexels

A recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on electricity consumption patterns in African countries showed that affordability trumps accessibility when it comes to consuming electricity in households. The study was conducted with the help of satellite to create a bundle of data to analyse which buildings had proper access to power and which did not have proper access.

According to IEA, Electricity consumption in many buildings remained much lower than benchmarks commonly used in the energy space to describe basic levels of household electricity usage, likely due to challenges with the affordability of energy and appliances. Africa nations like  Ghana, Senegal, and Uganda revealed that a considerable portion of the population, despite having access to electricity, consumed less than the IEA’s basic and extended bundles of energy consumption, the IEA study found.

The study was conducted by IEA alongside researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Electricity Growth and Use In Developing Economies. They mapped which buildings are likely to already have access to electricity today in these Africa countries and which do not, the tool also estimates the current or anticipated electricity needs for every building in a country. The IEA method can further be applied to satellite images of entire countries, and produce a significantly improved estimate for planners, utilities, and off-grid solar companies to identify target customers and communities. This significantly reduces the need for extensive on-the-ground surveys. The model builds on the night-time lights methodology but uses high-resolution images of buildings, their surroundings, and other geolocated datasets such as internet speeds.

Notably, IEA found that the low consumption at the household level in countries in Africa suggested that even where access is available, electricity may not be affordable or reliable enough to support essential activities such as lighting, cooking, and powering devices critical for education and home-based businesses. It also concluded that for off-grid businesses and utilities, this can make households unattractive to connect without greater incentives from governments or other financing mechanisms like results-based finance.