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C. Nabukalu and R. Giere
the desired service, the barriers to its consumption in Africa are mainly
infrastructural.
In the logistics of electricity, failure to deliver reliably to consumers
manifests itself in unplanned power outages and blackouts (Cotton,
Kirshner, & Salite, 2019; Kihwel, Hur, & Kyaruzi, 2012). Pesa (2017)
demonstrated that consumers keep charcoal as a backup to counter this
issue in Zambia. Mukwaya (2016) also showed that Uganda’s electricity
supply is highly erratic, which makes consumers rely on charcoal. In
Africa’s highly scattered settlements, grid connections are few and far
between (Khellaf, 2018). In fact, connection to the electricity grid may
require payment from customers, which in some cases may be evaded
through illegal connections, as observed in Tanzania (Cotton, Kirshner,
& Salite, 2019). Even though Khellaf (2018) suggested that 60% of
Africa’s population is rural and gridlines are fewer there, the Rural
Electrification Authority of Uganda (2020) registers several completed
projects connecting rural areas to the grid in various Northeastern
districts, e.g. Moroto, Kitgum, Sironko and Kayunga (see Fig. 6.1).
However, the sustenance of biomass demand over electricity in these
areas can still be attributed to the unreliability of the existing modern
infrastructure and the preference for firewood as an affordable alternative.
In Tanzania, demand for electricity is increasing along with additional
generation infrastructure (Power Africa, 2019; Kihwel, Hur, & Kyaruzi,
2012). However, as over 49% of the country’s electricity generation
is based on hydropower, which is weather-dependent, drought highly
affects system capacity, thus increasing unreliability to deliver power to
the country’s urban populations of Arusha, Dodoma and Bagamoyo.
Moreover, the country’s imbalance in generation and grid infrastructure
causes inefficiency, leaving Tanzania with one of the highest transmission
losses in the world and aging technology, thus sustaining unaffordable
tariffs that cannot be collected to recuperate costs of supply and increased
generation, despite subsidized electricity tariffs and deregulation to allow
competition with the state’s former monopoly in the electricity market
(through the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, TANESCO) (Kihwel,
Hur, & Kyaruzi, 2012).
C. Nabukalu and R. Giere
the desired service, the barriers to its consumption in Africa are mainly
infrastructural.
In the logistics of electricity, failure to deliver reliably to consumers
manifests itself in unplanned power outages and blackouts (Cotton,
Kirshner, & Salite, 2019; Kihwel, Hur, & Kyaruzi, 2012). Pesa (2017)
demonstrated that consumers keep charcoal as a backup to counter this
issue in Zambia. Mukwaya (2016) also showed that Uganda’s electricity
supply is highly erratic, which makes consumers rely on charcoal. In
Africa’s highly scattered settlements, grid connections are few and far
between (Khellaf, 2018). In fact, connection to the electricity grid may
require payment from customers, which in some cases may be evaded
through illegal connections, as observed in Tanzania (Cotton, Kirshner,
& Salite, 2019). Even though Khellaf (2018) suggested that 60% of
Africa’s population is rural and gridlines are fewer there, the Rural
Electrification Authority of Uganda (2020) registers several completed
projects connecting rural areas to the grid in various Northeastern
districts, e.g. Moroto, Kitgum, Sironko and Kayunga (see Fig. 6.1).
However, the sustenance of biomass demand over electricity in these
areas can still be attributed to the unreliability of the existing modern
infrastructure and the preference for firewood as an affordable alternative.
In Tanzania, demand for electricity is increasing along with additional
generation infrastructure (Power Africa, 2019; Kihwel, Hur, & Kyaruzi,
2012). However, as over 49% of the country’s electricity generation
is based on hydropower, which is weather-dependent, drought highly
affects system capacity, thus increasing unreliability to deliver power to
the country’s urban populations of Arusha, Dodoma and Bagamoyo.
Moreover, the country’s imbalance in generation and grid infrastructure
causes inefficiency, leaving Tanzania with one of the highest transmission
losses in the world and aging technology, thus sustaining unaffordable
tariffs that cannot be collected to recuperate costs of supply and increased
generation, despite subsidized electricity tariffs and deregulation to allow
competition with the state’s former monopoly in the electricity market
(through the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, TANESCO) (Kihwel,
Hur, & Kyaruzi, 2012).