Analysis of the Inadequacies in Existing Practices and Factors Affecting Domestic Energy Demand in Ghana

摘要

The economic growth of a country largely has a strong correlation with the availability, reliability and the improved efficiency of energy, which are mostly over simplified. Contrarily, an appreciable reduction in energy demand of a country in general, may prove more difficult than is simply expected due to the rebound effects for actions taken in order to reduce energy demand. Consequently, there are lots of challenges in getting to really understanding complete characteristics and behavior of domestic household electricity consumption; this could be due to the complexity of main energy consumption drivers, the heterogeneity of the residential sector in Ghana and also the absence of reliable data. Apparently, household behavior, which focuses on the interest and need to practice manageable energy consumption by household occupants, is mostly left out in analyzing the drivers of household energy demand. In this work, both quantitative and qualitative data on the household energy data was collected and analyzed to deduce the inadequacies in the existing practices and factors that affect domestic energy demand in Ghana. Results indicated that, income level, class of housing, gender of head of household, lack of knowledge on smart grid and meters and demand side management techniques like load shedding and shifting at the residential level greatly influence the domestic energy demand in Ghana.