How are energy supplies distributed in east Africa
Answers
Despite this enormous potential, the region's energy sector remains largely undeveloped and is characterized by extremely low levels of modern energy access, low per capita consumption and heavy reliance on biomass energy, which accounts for over 90% of total energy consumption across the region. Access to electricity in rural areas across the region is less than 1% in rural areas. Wood fuel provides energy needs of the traditional sector including rural and poor urban households and some cottage industries whilst electricity and petroleum products supply a large fraction of the countries commercial energy needs.
The energy sector is dominated by petroleum and electricity as the drivers of modern sectors of the economy. Biomass is predominantly used at the household level. A considerable amount of biomass is also used in the services/commercial and industrial sectors. The recent high usage of biomass in these sectors has been attributed to rising prices of petroleum products, inadequate and inefficient power supply systems arising from stunted growth in generation capacity and a poor transmission and distribution infrastructure.