The Senegalese government will implement an ambitious scheme to replace incandescent lamps with low-energy bulbs.
By Abdourahmane Diallo
In Senegal, the future of domestic and professional lighting will be characterised by LED bulbs.
In the intervening few months, the country will deploy 4.4 million units for households, administrations and small professionals, the head of the Agency for the Economy and Energy Management (AEME), Saër Diop said.
Speaking at the workshop to share and officially launch the effectiveness of Decree 2017-1411 on lighting and its implementation orders, Diop said that this transition is a “considerable challenge for the country.”
He stressed that annual energy savings expected from this programme are at least 88.1 MW of peak power and 184.4 GWh of energy.
This corresponds to the energy needs of nearly 140,000 households, he said.
According to Diop, in financial terms, this programme will allow saving nearly 15.7 billion CFA francs on the annual costs of electricity production, from 44 to 82.8 billion CFA francs on the investments for the construction of the power station depending on the technology adopted.
Similarly, 21.7 billion CFA francs will be saved on annual electricity costs.
Such results cannot be achieved, however, if the equipment prohibited by the new decree continues to enter the country and to be marketed.
The decree, which has four implementing orders adopted between March and July 2021, prohibits the import, production and marketing of incandescent lamps in Senegal and promotes energy-saving lamps.
It takes more restrictive measures on the import and marketing of conventional incandescent bulbs and halogen incandescent lamps as well as the quality control of energy saving lamps.
All of these new regulations must be disseminated to all stakeholders for their proper knowledge and application, suggested Saër Diop.
To do so, he pleaded for a strong collaboration between the actors involved in the operationalisation of these measures and for an awareness by distributors, importers, producers and the general public.
ARD/id/lb/as/APA