DIGITAL WATCH: Efficient Lighting

Efficient Lighting – A regulatory intervention using CFL to save money and electricity 

Due to the rising cost of energy, it was becoming increasingly apparent that there was strong competition between food and energy in Gambian households.

Another unique aspect of the electricity sector in The Gambia is that our electricity tariff is the highest in Africa with consumers paying about US $ 0.33 /kWh. Furthermore the electricity network in The Gambia was unique in that network loses were typically high averaging around 35%.

PURA thus took up energy efficiency as key to its strategy in the electricity sector. Helping consumers reduced their energy consumption was a win-win-win solution for the regulator, the utility and consumers.

The Energy Efficiency programme was two fold:

1. Consumer Awareness Programme: Since January 2008, PURA has been producing leaflet, and publish energy saving tips on all national newspapers, city and community radio stations and on the TV.

2. CFL Pilot Project: This project was to demonstrate within a pilot area that consumers can make significant savings by installing energy efficient lighting.

CFL technology offers a cheap alternative to inefficient lighting. CFL bulbs consume about a quarter of the energy of conventions incandescent light bulbs and also last longer, typically up to 3 years (6000hrs).

The objectives of the Pilot Project were as follows:

•  Reduce the losses on the low voltage feeders.
•  Reduce the current levels on feeders
•  Advise Consumers on how to save Energy
•  Help Consumers to save energy
•  Provide CFL lamps for consumers to realise Energy savings
•  Reduce the unnecessary loads on the Pilot Transformer Substation
•  Change Consumer Lamps from incandescent to CFL’s
• Reduce the Voltage drop on the feeders and improve the voltage level at the consumer premises

To implement the Project, the Electricity Engineer at PURA was identified as the Project Team leader. A project Document was prepared and circulated to all stakeholders including the utility, environment agency and government for consultation.  Together with utility, the pilot area was identified based on the following criteria

• Ease of access
• Level of overloading on the transformer and circuits
As the project was being implemented during the rainy season, Kanifing South residential area was chosen as the best location and 150 households were selected.

Once the pilot site was agreed on, a Questionnaire was circulated to all the households in the area to obtain baseline data on their monthly consumption, typical household appliances and number of people per household. The meter readers of the utility company were used to conduct the survey as they were already familiar with the target area.
To be continued