Advancing the market transformation towards efficient lighting and appliances in the EAC and SADC regions

Dar es Salaam, 11 February 2019,

Member States from EAC and SADC countries gathered for a two days consultation and validation workshop on a new project launched in the two regions promoting Energy Efficient lighting and Appliances.

EAC and SADC regions are battling low levels of access to clean and affordable energy services as well as energy insecurity due to low generation capacity and in some parts inefficient grids. The use of low quality and inefficient products is providing sincere constraints to the electricity markets in the regions. Demand-side management (DSM), implemented mainly by state owned utilities and coordinated by the power pools, has been adopted by EAC and SADC as the quickest and cheaper option to mitigate low energy security. However, these measures have often been adopted on an ad-hoc approach and the markets have not yet undergone a sincere transformation.

It is against this background that the SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, SACREEE, the East African Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EACREEE) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) have started a project on Energy Efficient Lighting and Appliances (EELA) in EAC and SADC and held a consultation and validation workshop on 11-12 February 2019 in Dar es Salaam Tanzania.

The main objective of the EELA project is to promote a market transformation for energy efficient lighting and appliances in the EAC and SADC regions. More specifically, the project aims at creating market and institutional conditions to enable a transformation of the sector to stimulate increased diffusion of efficient lighting products and appliances across all sectors.

The workshop presented and discussed the outputs of the Energy Efficient Lighting and Appliances preparatory phase (EELA-PREP) studies that are meant to support the implementation of a five year project on EELA for which a project document is being developed and presented for adoption to Sida. The findings also served as inputs in a preparatory meeting for the establishment of technical committees for energy efficiency under SADCSTAN and EASC in order to develop Minimum Energy Performance Standards for Lighting and Appliances for the two regions.

Workshop participants demonstrated their strong commitment to this project that moves towards energy-efficient lighting. They echoed the fact that the expect the project to; facilitate awareness creation and sharing of information, support member state in development of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS), provide support to the national process through various activities and support on request, support governments in the implementation of the regional standards and provide capacity building support for national institutions, energy service providers and financial institutions.

The workshop was attended by the representatives from the Department of Energy and Standard Boards of the SADC and EAC Member States as well as regional organisations, international experts and development partners.

SACREEE and EACREEEE are part of UNIDO´s Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centers. In partnership with Member States and other regional players (e.g. utility organisations, regulatory authorities, banks), the centers work towards the creation of integrated and inclusive regional markets for sustainable energy products and services.

Further links:

www.sacreee.org

www.eacreee.org

www.unido.org

www.se4allnetwork.org

https://www.sadc.int/