Enhancing energy efficiency in developing country households: Policy evaluation for household appliances in Ghana

The residential sector in Ghana has been identified as an important group for energy efficiency programs in order to meet the country's growing energy demands and also tackle its power shortages. The total final energy consumption of the country stands at 47% for the residential sector, with an average of 31% and 7% for refrigerating and air conditioning, respectively. Improving energy efficiency in the residential sector will not only improve both local and global energy use but will also improve carbon emission reduction. Hence, to ensure that this energy efficiency is achieved, the country enacted four legislative instruments to regulate the importation of cooling appliances (refrigerating and air conditioning), lighting, and other household appliances. These legislative instruments are to ensure that these appliances meet the requirements of the minimum energy performance standards (MEPS). This study provides a quantitative performance evaluation of energy, energy savings, and carbon emissions through the adaptation of the minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), cooling appliance standardization, and labeling programs for Ghanaian households using the appliance and equipment climate impact calculator (MEPSY) modeling method. This quantitative evaluation (energy efficiency policy documents) is based on data acquired from governmental agencies responsible for the energy sector. The outcome revealed that the MEPS program in Ghana has yielded a total savings of over USD 3,100 in financial savings on electricity bills due to energy savings of 23,100KWh in the household sector from 2010 to 2020, while a total of over 12,650GWh of electricity savings was made, translating into financial savings of over USD 2 billion in electricity bill savings with a carbon reduction of 6.5 million tons within the same period at the national level.