DISCUSSION
4.3 CHANGES IN THE QUANTITIES OF THE DIFFERENT ENERGY FORMS
Monthly consumption of fuels, whose end uses were previously associated with lighting, powering entertainment appliances and refrigeration had declined at the time of the second survey in the four electrified settlements. The affected fuels included paraffin, candles, dry cell batteries, lead acid batteries, and gas. Generators were no longer in use. It was clear that the reported decline was offset by a corresponding rise in the use of electricity to meet the respective end uses. To some extent, this trend provides support for the existence of a shift in patterns of energy use of the following nature:
ii) from paraffin and candles to electricity to light domestic dwellings.
iii) from gas and paraffin to electricity for refrigeration and in some cases for cooking.
iv) from generators to electricity for lighting and powering other electrical appliances
This shift is supported by White et al. (1997) who noted that for most low-income households,
“the suitability of electricity for lighting and running appliances is beyond dispute. It puts an end to the dim and dangerous light of a candle or paraffin lamp, and to the trouble and expense of dry cells or recharging car batteries.” It is, however, important to note that the mentioned changes are not as simple as the energy ladder or leapfrogging concepts suggest. Most households were selective in the way they used electricity to replace the other fuels. For example, a household would use electricity to power a television set and at the same time use dry cell batteries to power a radio cassette.
In terms of cooking energy, fuelwood retained its traditional importance in all the sample settlements with over 90% of the households reporting use. There were no quantitative trends supporting the existence of a shift from fuelwood to other fuels, particularly electricity. Monthly consumption of fuelwood remained the same in the region. Only about 1% of the households in the region used electricity alone for all thermal purposes. A few households that used paraffin and gas for cooking did so in combination with fuelwood. The continued use of wood could be attributed to the fact that it was obtained for free and was believed to cook faster than the other fuels. In cases where it was purchased, it was relatively cheaper than the other fuels. The mean annual increment in the price of fuelwood over the past 11 years was only 4.2%. This was a lot less than the other commercial fuels, and less than the inflation rate. Additionally the use of fuelwood for cooking and heating does not require the use of expensive appliances. The observed trends are in agreement with White (1997) who observed that the majority of poor people who have access to electricity avoid using it for those needs that have a high-energy demand and for which the appliances are specialised and relatively expensive, such as cooking and space heating.
Similar results were obtained in Zimbabwe and Kenya were rural inhabitants preferred using wood for thermal applications because it was a free commodity and in cases were it was purchased it was relatively cheaper than other fuels (Marufa et al. 1996, Kituyi et al. 2001).
It can, therefore, be expected that sophisticated energy sources, particularly electricity, have restricted levels of domestic use in the region. These levels range from use for lighting only,
cooking to exclusive use for all domestic energy need. Most households are unable to enter the level of use for cooking or exclusive use for all domestic energy needs, due to the high cost of electricity and the inability to purchase appliances that go with the use of electricity. Gitonga (2002), therefore, cautions planners to be careful in using the energy theories without modifying them to fit particular regions’ cultural, social and economic perspectives in relation to the use of energy. In light of this, an “energy web” could, perhaps, be used to denote the energy transition that has taken place in the four electrified settlements (Fig. 13).
Fig. 13. An “energy web” denoting the kind of energy transition in the Bushbuckridge district.
The above figure is more realistic and gives a more detailed picture of the nature of the transition in the sample settlements between 1991 and 2002. It’s more elaborative than either the energy ladder or leapfrogging theories. A discontinuous line in the figure stands for a transition path involving households while a continuous line stands for a transition path for the majority of households. As can be seen from the figure, going up the energy web fuel types become more efficient and cleaner. Fuel switching in favour of electricity is only evident in as far as lighting, powering entertainment appliances and refrigeration are concerned. The majority of households in Bushbuckridge have achieved this transition. For thermal application, however, there is a dead end on fuelwood. Only a few high-income households have managed to move on to the use of electricity for cooking. The above model can also be used to explain the energy transitions reported by White (1997), White et al (1997), Davis (1998) and Murphy (2002). It explains the energy transitions reported in the respective regions.