Czech-ing out the CFL market
Czech-ing out the CFL market
Last May, CEZ (the Czech Power Utility) and the Energy Agency of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade sponsored a program aimed at marketing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in the Czech Republic. The program included almost 150 000 lamps that went on sale with an average rebate of 40% at a chain of department stores in nine Czech cities.
The CFLs were mainly electronic and ranged from 11-25 W. They included Osram, Philips, and Tungsram brands as well as the domestically produced TESLA Holesovice and TESLA Votice brands. They were almost completely sold out in a matter of days, as was the case during a similar campaign last year. The use of these lamps should result in an annual savings of about 10 000 MWh of electricity.
Customers that use these lamps would have otherwise had to purchase a total of about 1 million standard incandescent lamps at a cost of 10 million Kc (~US$0.3 million). Program costs were 16 million Czech crowns (~S$0.5 million), of which the energy agency paid a third and the utility the remaining two thirds. Rebates were paid directly to the department store chain.
The problem with expanding this type of activity in the Czech Republic is that Czech law still does not allow electric utilities to recover the cost of energy conservation expenses through their electricity rates. CEZ must therefore consider the sale of CFLs as a charitable activity, increasing the utility's goodwill in the eyes of the public. Czech residential electricity tariffs still are subsidized (by commercial customers). Thus, any revenue losses that would accrue from large-scale programs would partly be offset in cases where lamps are bought by residential customers.
As an add-on to this project, CEZ has prepared a 2 million Kc (~$0.1 million) demonstration project to estimate the real energy savings that households can realize by switching to CFLs. A six-story building in Prague will receive efficient lamps for the hallways and two to three lamps for each apartment. Post-installation electricity consumption will then be compared with pre-installation consumption, as well as with the consumption of buildings outfitted with standard incandescents.
CEZ conducted a small poll to determine why consumers decided to purchase CFLs. These were the results:
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To save money 75%
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Curiosity 10%
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Environmental reasons 4%
- Other 11%
In another proposal, floated at national level, the idea of giving away millions of CFLs to school children, retired people, etc., was considered. However, this proposal was turned down because of fears that lamps given away would be resold, thereby destroying the country's fragile market for CFLs.
Nils Borg
For info on lighting in the Czech Republic, contact:
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Vladimir Prochazka
SEVEn, the Czech Energy Efficiency Center
Tel: +42 2 2424 7552
Fax: +42 2 2424 7597
E-mail:seven@ecn.gn.apc.org
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Zdenek Tobias
Head of DSM Section, CEZ
Tel: +42 2 2408 2325
Fax: +42 2 2408 2446