HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION CHOICES IN AWEDAY TOWN, EAST HARARAGHE ZONE, OROMIA, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Modern fuels are vital for social and economic development. Energy choice in Ethiopia remains relatively low. Absence of clean energy choice for urban community has caused in bottlenecks in the provision of public amenities for which modern energy sources are essential inputs. In order to improve household energy consumption, energy consumption choice is crucial. The main objective of this study is to analyze the household energy consumption choice in Aweday town because of highly populated with high energy consumption. To achive the stated objective, two stage sampling technique was used to select the sample respondents. In the first stage, sample kebeles were selected from the total three kebeles randomly. In the second stage, sample households were selected using random sampling method. For this study, data were obtained from the randomly selected 365 sampling households. The method used to collect data was a questionnaire. To anayze the data descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model were used. The main consuming sector is residential and this sector requires energy for cooking and lighting purposes. The result of this study revealed that, energy choice by household was determined by socio demogrpahic and economic factors such as household size, age of the household, ownership status, education level, sex, and marital status. This study was mainly focused on the effect of energy consumption in households’ level, but there might have factors beyond those, that can improve energy consumption choices and those factors were not addressed by this study.This study recommends local governments to emphasize on efficient alternative energy sources taking significant variables in to consideration.