IAEEL newsletter 2/98
Cutting African Peaks
Cutting African Peaks
The Efficient Lighting Initiative (ELI) is a central component of South-African Eskom's residential demand-side management campaign. The campaign seeks to reduce peak demand by 2 500 MW by 2010.
South Africašs national utility Eskom's need to reduce peak residential demand is great because South Africa is currently embarked on a massive electrification drive, providing more than 300 000 new hook-ups per year. Since lighting makes up 80% of the demand in newly electrified households, efficient lighting technologies could have a large impact on peak loads. Eskom expects the ELI to account for 700 to 800 MW of these 2 500 MW of peak savings, or 20-25 % of the savings. This is equivalent to the generation capacity of a large pumped storage hydroelectric scheme.
To meet its objective, the ELI is seeking to transform the residential market for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in a way that will result in consumers purchasing 18 million of these highly efficient lamps by year 2010. Eskom, which is initially focusing the program on low-income households, has assembled a team of experts to develop the business plan for achieving these goals. The feasibility study was completed in November 1998.
Because there are large potential environmental savings associated with the initiative as well, Eskom has received support from the Global Environment Fund (GEF) (see article on page 1). The GEF has granted Eskom US$225 000 to assist in the feasibility work. The feasibility study could lead to the approval of a five-year, $7 million project.
Since 94% of South Africa's electricity is generated by coal-fueled thermal power stations, when fully implemented the ELI will result in annual emission reductions of
The initiative will also save 2.1 billion litres of water per year and will ensure that South Africa's power stations emit ~820 000 fewer tons of coal each year.
In spite of their superior life-cycle costs, CFLs have not made inroads into the market because their purchase price is much higher than that of incandescent lamps. The price relation is typical of that in most countries: $10 for CFL versus $0.50 for an incandescent.
A market survey conducted by Eskom found that the customers would not be likely to purchase a CFL priced much above $6.00. The survey also showed that there was extremely low consumer awareness of CFLs, e.g. not more than 3% of the surveyed persons belonging to lower-income groups were aware of CFLs. In addition, the survey found that fewer than 10% of South African homes currently use CFLs. The survey results indicate the two main fronts on which Eskom must work: (1) educating consumers about the benefits of CFLs and (2) determining ways to bring the purchase price down to an acceptable level. To address the price issue, Eskom is investigating a number of strategies, including the leasing and retail rebate coupons for current electricity customers and the direct installation of new hook-ups.
Bob Price
Team Member, Climate Change
Int'l Institute for Energy Conservation
62A Fifth Avenue, Melville
Johannesburg 2092
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 482 5990, Fax: +27 11 482 4723
E-mail: bprice@iafrica.com
www.iiec.org