By Liberty Amewode

The country has been able to save close to $300million, following the vigorous campaign throughout the country on energy conservation since 2007, the Energy Foundation (EF) has revealed.

According to the foundation, the crusade against the waste of electricity, which involved the replacement of incandescent lamps with the compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) among other interventions, has resulted in the reduction of electricity by 125 megawatts, an amount of energy whose cost of production would have been $300million.

The Executive Director of the Energy Foundation, Nana Asare Afriyie, who made this known at the launch of the first ever Energy Efficiency and Conservation Month last week, said about $12million had been spent on the project to reduce the consumption, making a case for the moves to promote energy efficiency rather than producing more electricity to meet demand.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Month, has been instituted by the Energy Commission and was launched in collaboration with the Energy Foundation to create the necessary awareness and sensitize the public on how to use electricity efficiently and would be observed every September.
Outlining some of the measures taken to achieve that feat, Nana Asare, known in private life as Ernest Asare, said the foundation used public education through television and radio advertisement as well as personal contacts to drive home the message of energy conservation.
According to him, the realization of the government’s objective of Ghana achieving middle income status by 2015 required the availability of adequate and reliable energy supply which in the short to medium term would be produced from petroleum or gas-fired thermal plants.
“This requires huge investment outlays and could strain the economy and deprive other sectors such as education, health and roads of the much-needed funds”, he added.
He said as the country took steps to bring its electricity tariffs to economic levels, there was the need to educate consumers to use electricity efficiently and avoid waste as inefficient use of electricity in the residential sector has been identified to be largely due to the use of certain household appliances.
Nana Asare asserted therefore that reducing the high levels of energy consumption will not only help the consumer to reduce expenditure on electricity but will also save the country from expensive investment in generating plants.
Earlier in a statement, a member of the Energy Commission Board, Mr. Kofi Wayo, decried the wastage of 30 per cent of energy produced in the country, describing it as not only disturbing but unacceptable.
He said the high growth in demand for energy had been straining the energy infrastructure, causing environmental damage and hindering economic growth.
He added that whereas growth in energy demand could be accommodated by supplying more energy and improving the efficiency of energy consumption, it had been established that energy efficiency and conservation could be an effective tool for ensuring energy efficiency in commercial and residential sectors.
Mr. Wayo, who also chaired the function, said the Commission has been empowered by three legislations, whose combined effects were to promote energy efficiency and conservation as well as prevent the country from becoming a dumping ground for discarded and inefficient equipment from the countries of origin.
“Energy efficiency and conservation offers a powerful and cost-effective tool for achieving a sustainable energy future”, he said, adding that improvements in energy efficiency could reduce the need for investment in energy infrastructure, cut fuel costs, increase competiveness and improve consumer welfare.
It is widely held that cutting electricity usage is even more important these days when oil prices have become highly volatile, bringing in its wake huge oil import bills to the national economy. Less consumption will therefore lead to less demand for thermal plants which run on diesel, thereby reducing our carbon emissions significantly, a situation that requires a collaborative effort from everyone.
And this Mr. Wayo assures, saying the EC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Foundation, is committed to ensuring that energy efficiency and conservation becomes the way of life of the people.
The programme for the replacement of incandescent bulbs sought to replace existing five million pieces of incandescent bulbs of various wattages from 40W to 100W that consume a total of about 581GWH of electricity per annum with six million pieces of CFLs in the range of 9W -20W that consume a total of about 151.475GWH of electricity annually.