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Millions still without electricity in SA

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Mar 04 2009 12:48

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About R2,5-million households in South Africa do not have electricity, according to the results of a study released on Wednesday.

"Over four million households do not cook with electricity and two million households rely on candles for lighting," according to the study by Citizens United for Renewable Energies and Sustainability (Cures).

"This is in a country that has over 36 000MW of installed power generation capacity, its own nuclear power plant and one of the largest electricity utilities in the world," the study says.

About 70% of rural households rely on wood fuel and paraffin even though some of them having electricity, the study shows.

It also reveals that South Africa's Integrated National Electrification Programme has raised the level of electrification from 36% in 1993 to 80% by 2007.

"What this impressive rate of electrification hides is the bias towards urban electrification and the fact that it is the rural poor who largely comprise the millions of households lacking access to the grid," the study says.

"Rural electrification rates are still between 50% and 60% leaving well over two million households without access to the grid. Such disparities will not be easily remedied as rural electrification is far more costly than urban and the electrification budget has been steadily decreasing over the years.

"In addition, rural areas are less frequently targeted as investors fear lower returns than the more dense and lucrative urban markets."

Annie Sugrue, coordinator for Cures Southern Africa, said the poor are largely excluded from benefiting from the cheap energy that modern society gets from fossil fuels.

"The roll-out of government programmes is sorely lacking in dealing with the millions who have no access to modern energy services."

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She recommends renewable energy as a viable alternative for rural areas.

"Renewable energy provides an excellent opportunity to provide modern energy services to those lacking it, even in far flung rural areas," she said.

She added that renewable energy could be delivered in a decentralised way, taking advantage of the excellent solar and biomass potential in South Africa.

"Renewable energy production furthermore has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of which do not require the same skills level of other energy sources like nuclear energy," said Sugrue.

The study also acknowledges a project funded by Eskom and government where compact fluorescent lamps were distributed free of charge in exchange for incandescent light bulbs among urban households.

"This reduced household electricity consumption benefiting both households in terms of lower electricity bills as well as reducing demand-side pressure on the national utility.

"In a similar swap initiative, the government launched LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] stoves.

"With the appropriate scale such initiatives may reduce peak time demand for electricity but the question remains whether longer term reliance on LPG will not increase energy costs for the poor, as LPG is expensive," the study said. -- Sapa

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