Biomass based household energy baseline survey at Kelle : a case study for growing small urban towns Southern Nation, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Ethiopia

A study on fuel consumption patterns, household energy attributes and the supply of biomass fuels was conducted in Kelle town Amaro-Special Wereda. The purpose of the study was to analyze how the wealth/economic category of the household influences the level of fuel consumption, access and ownership to fuel saving appliance and other household energy attributes. The supply and consumption of biomass fuels were assessed, to investigate whether energy consumption is in danger of out stripping supplies, in the study town.A simple random sampling design was applied for the household energy attributes survey and a total of 66 households were interviewed using structured questionnaires. The 66 sample households were further redistributed into three wealth groups (poor, medium and better-ff). By identifying biomass fuel consumers in the town, a week long energy consumption measurement was conducted on 15 sub-samples from the 66 sample households (5 from each wealth strata) and on 10 service giving organizations. For service giving organizations the daily consumption measurement of biomass fuels from wood, BLT and charcoal was made. For households the daily consumption measurement of wood, BLT, charcoal, crop residues, kerosene and electricity was made using a spring balance, internal caliper and ruler. For the supply study, inflow tally recording was conducted on each day of three randomly selected weeks of the study period, by identifying the biomass inflow gates.The survey results showed that households' stove use pattern for baking and other cooking is mostly over open fires and least for traditional enclosed and energy efficient improved stoves. Biomass fuels are of great importance to households in the study town. Mean energy use in Kelle town is 84.2 MJ per household per day. The mean daily consumption of fuel wood is 4.9 kg. wood equivalent per household per day. Amongst the identified wealth groups, better-off households consume the largest amount of energy 114.3 MJ/day while, the medium and poor households consume comparatively little 82.6 MJ/day and 55.81 MJ/day respectively. The T-test analysis indicated that consumption differs significantly at a=0.05 and a=0.01 levels of significance and between medium and better-off households at a=0.05 level of significance.Of the traditional fuels BLT is the most widely used and supplied fuel type in the study town. It is used by 91% of total households and covers 58% of the daily mean number of inflows and covers the largest share 47% of the daily total biomass fuel (energy) consumption of all consumer types of the study town.About 38% of households purchase biomass fuels while 29% obtain it by free collection. The source of firewood, crop residues and charcoal for Kelle town are outside the town and the largest portion comes through Sing-Kella gate through which 56% of the total biomass fuel inflows were observed. Children and women participate more in fuel wood collection than men. On average, fuel carriers undertake a 13.2 km round trip to bring fuel from the surrounding forests.In conclusion, the recent rapid urbanization, which is associated with the population increase, inefficient energy utilization, high dependency on biomass fuels, and a lack of proper regulatory and extension services are causing deforestation in the area. In order to protect the natural resources of the study area from unsustainable extraction, intervention options such as promotion and dissemination of energy efficient stoves/enclosed stoves should be sought.