The Impact of Energy Efficiency Programmes in Ghana

*Edwin Kwasi Tamakloe*

#### **Abstract**

Ghana experienced widespread power shortages due to series of droughts spanning from the 1980s to the 1990s. Energy efficiency programmes were identified to solve these energy supply challenges. Consequently, the residential sector has been recognized as an important target group for energy efficiency programmes in the country. The residential sector in Ghana accounts for 47% of the total final energy use. Reducing the inefficiencies in the residential sector energy use could be an effective way of reducing global energy use and related environmental impacts. Therefore, Ghana enacted four Legislative Instruments to regulate the importation of refrigerating, air conditioning and lighting appliances and also to ensure these appliances meet the minimum energy performance standards (MEPS). The purpose of this paper was to review and establish the impact of the MEPS programmes in Ghana from 2007 to 2020. The content of this desktop review is based on data gathered through a series of reviews of available energy efficiency policy documents from governmental agencies. The results revealed that the implementation of MEPS programmes in Ghana yielded 8317.8 GWh of electricity savings, which translates into carbon emission reduction of 4.60 million tonnes of CO2 and energy cost savings of USD 832 million in term of electricity bills.

**Keywords:** energy efficiency, minimum energy performance standards, standards and labelling and energy saving

### **1. Introduction**

Globally, the building sector is accountable for 30% of the total final energy consumption and without action, the energy demand in this sector could increase by another 30% by 2060 [1]. Again, buildings represent 28% of global energyrelated CO2 emissions worldwide [2]. This sector's energy consumption is related to human programmes involving the use of equipment, lighting and other electrical appliances [3]. The household/residential sector, which forms part of the total building stocks, has been identified as one of the target groups for energy efficiency programmes [4, 5] also underscored that households can adopt and implement energy efficiency measures to reduce energy consumption significantly.

The residential sector in Ghana accounts for 47% of the total final energy consumption [6], compared to other countries such as the United States (25%), United Kingdom (30%), Japan (26%), Saudi Arabia (50%), China (15.8%) and Malaysia (15%) [5, 7–9]. Electrical appliances such as refrigerators, freezers and room air

conditioners (RACs), which are energy-intensive, are among the most common Ghanaian household appliances. Whilst refrigerators and freezers consume between 25–30% of the total residential energy use, air conditioners account for 6.5% of residential energy use in Ghana [10]. Whilst [11] indicated that most of the markets in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries are inundated with "used electrical appliances" [12], assert that this phenomenon was a result of the proliferation of used or "secondhand" goods from Europe and elsewhere. For instance, it has been estimated that there were over two (2) million used and inefficient refrigerating appliances in Ghana in 2012 that were laden with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) [13]. This large number was primarily due to the introduction of standards and labelling in developed countries and the era of energy efficiency programmes in Europe in the early 1970s saw many of these countries disposing of their old and energy inefficient appliances into SSA [14]. The share of the used electrical appliance market in Ghana at the time was about 80%, thereby promoting climate injustice [14]. These used and inefficient refrigerating appliances consume, on average, 1200 kWh per unit per year compared to 250 kWh and 400 kWh per year in Europe and the US respectively [15].

Minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and the introduction of more efficient appliances through energy efficiency standards and labelling (EES&L) programmes have been identified as potential means of reducing the energy consumption of these inefficient appliances. It has been noted that improving energy efficiency is the best way to simultaneously meet sustainable development goals (SDGs) 7 and 13 in the energy sector [16]. This approach, when used judiciously, frees resources for other projects, helps economies to grow and reduces environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. MEPS programmes have also proven to be effective in stimulating the development of cost-effective, energyefficient technologies and are said to be the cornerstone of most national energy and climate change mitigation programmes [17].

Ghana's move to improve its energy efficiency is part of a larger energy sector reform programme designed to support the country's long-term economic developmental agenda. In 2002, Ghana, therefore, identified the benefits of MEPS such as EES&L programmes for equipment and other electrical appliances such as deep freezers, RACs, refrigerators, industrial motors and lighting systems [18]. These standards and labelling programmes serve as benchmarks and catalysts in meeting the MEPS objectives.

According to [19], energy efficiency legislations and policies have continued to increase globally through energy efficiency research and developmental programmes [20]. However, several barriers attributable to the low adoption and implementation of MEPS in SSA have to be overcome. These barriers, according to [21, 22], include financial constraints, techno-economic, political-institutional barriers, market barriers, lack of incentives and lack of information (knowledge). As a result of market failures in SSA, [23] suggested in his paper, "The market for lemons: Quality and uncertainty in the market mechanism", that in markets where consumers do not have reliable and adequate information in respect of the quality of the products, it leads to the proliferation of cheaper and low-quality products. The effect of this failure is that more efficient products or appliances are pushed out of the market space.

Notwithstanding these continental constraints, Ghana was able to overcome these barriers through stakeholders' consultative engagements using the *quadruple helix model* of policy (government, academia, industry and the media) and marketplace innovations such as standards and labelling [14]. Four (4) Legislative Instruments (L.Is) were subsequently enacted by the Ghanaian Parliament in collaboration with the Ghana Energy Commission and Ghana Standards Authority. They include:


These standards and labelling initiatives provide a mandatory labelling regime in Ghana, where energy guide labels have to be affixed conspicuously on these appliances to indicate the minimum energy performance levels of these appliances. The indicators on these energy guide labels include annual energy consumption, type of refrigerant, climate class, star rating, manufacturer, model number, fresh and frozen volumes. This mandatory labelling regime is intended to promote energy efficiency, transform the appliances market, reduce energy demand in households and reduce Ghana's energy-related CO2 and ozone-depleting substances (ODS) emissions. This paper reviews the impact of the first three regulations and other energy efficiency projects between 2007 and 2020.

To commence the enforcement of these regulations, the national refrigerator turn-in and rebate scheme was launched by the Government of Ghana, on the advice of the Ghana Energy Commission in July, 2012. The objective was to recover about fifty thousand (50,000) inefficient refrigerating appliances from homes and encourage individuals to use more energy-efficient ones. So, in 2013, the Ghana Energy Commission commenced the full implementation of these regulations at the ports of entry. It is therefore imperative to review and establish the impact of these regulations between 2007 and 2020.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: the next section following the introduction looks at the methodology being employed. The concept of energy efficiency is examined in Section 3. Section 4 provides the Global and National overviews of MEPS implementations. Testing and inspection protocols for refrigerating, lighting and air-conditioning equipment in Ghana are considered in Section 5. Section 6 offers the discussion of the results of some of the real impacts due to MEPS whilst Section 7 concludes the paper.

## **2. Methodology of the study**

This section explains the methodology adopted for this work.

#### **2.1 Desktop review**

The content of this desktop review is based on energy efficiency appliance import data, policy documents and market transformation data from the Ghana Energy Commission, Energy Foundation, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research—Institute of Industrial Research (CSIR-IIR), Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA-Custom Division) and Ghana Statistical Service (GSS). Other sources of information include the International Energy Agency (IEA) as well as other related web searches. Besides, global and SSA energy efficiency documents were also

reviewed by examining secondary data from standards, regulations, protocols, market report series and other available statistical data.

#### **2.2 Calculation of electricity savings**

The basic assumption for computing electricity savings is that without MEPS regulation and its accompanying awareness programmes. Eqs. (1)–(4) were used to estimate the annual energy saving per appliance, total energy savings for all the appliances and CO2 emissions reductions between 2007 and 2020 as a result of MEPS implementation. Therefore, the annual electricity saving, *AES* (kWh) gained from the use of each MEPS-compliant appliance can be estimated by comparing its calculated annual electricity consumption (*AEC*) with the annual consumption of a used and inefficient refrigerator as shown by Eq. (1):

$$AES = AES\_{\text{before MEPS implementation}} - AES\_{\text{after MEPS implementation}} \tag{1}$$

where *AES* is the annual electricity saving for MEPS-compliant refrigerating appliance (kWh/year), and *AEC* is the annual electricity consumption before and after MEPS implementation. In Ghana, used and inefficient refrigerating appliances consumed on average 1200 kWh/year (consumption before MEPS implementation).

The total annual electricity saving, *AES*total (GWh), of MEPS-compliant appliances was calculated by aggregating the products of electricity saving and the number of units sold (*NUS*) in a particular year, as shown in Eq. (2):

$$AES\_{total,year} = \sum \left( AES \times NUS\_{year} \right) \tag{2}$$

#### **2.3 Calculation of cost savings**

The total cost savings from MEPS implementation are computed in terms of the electricity savings from operating a more efficient appliance. Thus, the annual electricity savings computed using Eq. (2) is used to estimate the total cost savings by multiplying the computed electricity savings with the electricity tariff as shown in Eq. (3):

$$\text{CS} = A \text{ES}\_{\text{total,year}} \times ET\_{\text{residential}} \tag{3}$$

where *CStotal, year* [USD] is the total cost savings in a year and *ET*residential [USD/kWh] is the average electricity tariff for the residential sector, set at USD 0.10/kWh [6]. The residential sector tariff was used because MEPS regulations in Ghana is primarily targeted at the residential sector.

#### **2.4 Calculation of carbon emission reduction**

The annual carbon emission reduction, *CERtotal, year* [MtCO2eq] was evaluated based on the total annual electricity saving, *AEStotal, year* [MWh] with the help of Eq. (4).

$$\text{CER}\_{\text{total,year}} = A \text{ES}\_{\text{total, year}} \times \text{GEF}\_{\text{Ghana, year}} \tag{4}$$

where *GEF*Ghana, year is the grid emission factor for Ghana [tCO2eq/MWh].
