From December 10 to 11 this year, member states of the African Union (AU) converged in Addis Ababa to deliberate on the future of energy efficiency on the continent. This was the first-ever conference held by the African Energy Commission (AFREC), the AU arm responsible for energy affairs.
For three days, preceding the conference, there were workshops to discuss various energy efficiency tools in data analysis, minimum energy performance standards and efficiency in buildings.
Kenya was represented in the conference by the private and public sectors and development partners. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) participated in this conference, both at technical and high-level.
The conference saw the launch of the African Energy Efficiency Alliance, the Energy Transition Strategy and Action Plan and the African Energy Efficiency Facility.
The Alliance brings together stakeholders across Africa for knowledge sharing, research, advocacy and fundraising for energy efficiency initiatives in Africa.
The Strategy and Action Plan, on the other hand, is a roadmap for Africa to implement energy efficiency interventions across sectors such as industry, power, agriculture, buildings, clean cooking and transport. This seeks to improve the energy productivity targets of the continent.
Lastly, the Energy Efficiency Facility seeks to mobilise $3bn by 2030, for energy efficiency projects, harmonisation of policies and capacity building, with a target of reaching 12 % improvement in energy productivity.
At the EPRA, we laud this conference and consider it a giant step towards improving our national development goals, espoused by President Ruto’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda. The outcomes of the conference and the current energy efficiency activities spearheaded by EPRA are symbiotic in many ways.
One, Kenya is among the less than 10 countries in the world which have developed a well-structured regulatory approach for industrial energy efficiency.
Most jurisdictions focus on building efficiency and leave industrial efficiency unregulated. The current requirement for designated facilities to comply with regulatory provisions for energy management is unique in the region and has been successful so far, with evidence of demand savings of 157 MW. Through the Alliance, the country will share its success lessons with other African Union member states.
Further, Kenya has been implementing its standards and labelling program, with the designation of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for selected appliances.
The MEPS enforcement in the country has been successful, enabling Kenyans to have access to only efficiently performing appliances. Other countries in the Alliance can also learn from the Kenyan journey towards adopting MEPS and labelling.
Conversely, Kenya will also benefit from the knowledge sharing in improving the efficiency of buildings and expanding the number of appliances under the MEPS program. Some countries in the Alliance have focused mostly on buildings, while others have more than 10 appliances under the MEPS program. This will be an opportune moment for us to consolidate our existing gains in energy efficiency by adopting efficiency in buildings and increasing the number of appliances regulated for efficiency.
The symbiotic relationship notwithstanding, Kenya continues to pursue efforts to reduce the cost of energy through energy efficiency. The existing energy management framework is a good example of how industrial, commercial and institutional consumers can reduce their costs of energy by reducing the amount of energy used to produce a unit product or service.
The EPRA will continue supporting energy efficiency interventions in many ways. These include licensing of energy auditors to conduct audits for firms, capacity building of the auditors, publication of energy efficiency books, licensing of energy service companies and supporting the established super energy service company, popularly known as the super ESCO. We will also continue engaging the chief executive officers of designated energy-consuming facilities in a “meet the CEO” one-on-one engagement, to try and jointly improve energy efficiency in their plants.
As we enjoy our holidays, we should collaboratively work towards being efficient in our use of energy, domestically, on the road and in our industries, to realise sustainable development of the country, as envisaged by the government.
The writer is the Deputy Director, Energy Efficiency at EPRA
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