Impact Evaluation of Free-of-charge CFL Bulb Distribution in Ethiopia

Electricity infrastructure is one of the
most important development challenges in Africa. While more
resources are clearly needed to invest in new capacities, it
is also important to promote energy efficiency and manage
the increasing demand for power. This paper evaluates one of
the recent energy-efficiency programs in Ethiopia, which
distributed 350,000 compact fluorescent lamp bulbs free of
charge. The impact related to this first phase is estimated
at about 45 to 50 kilowatt hours per customer per month, or
about 13.3 megawatts of energy savings in total. The overall
impact of the compact fluorescent lamp bulb programs, thanks
to which more than 5 million bulbs were distributed, could
be significantly larger. The paper also finds that the
majority of the program beneficiaries were low-volume
customers -- mostly from among the poor -- although the
program was not targeted. In addition, the analysis
determines the distributional effect of the program: the
energy savings relative to the underlying energy consumption
were larger for the poor. The evidence also supports a
rebound effect. About 20 percent of the initial energy
savings disappeared within 18 months of the program's completion.