ALGIERS – Wednesday, 20 December 2023 (APS) – The energy sector is working, as part of the energy transition and efficiency, to draw up a prospective plan covering several sectors, particularly public lighting, which accounts for 40% of overall electricity consumption in Algeria, said on Tuesday in Algiers, Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Abdelkrim Aouissi.
Speaking at the African Workshop on Energy Efficiency in Public Lighting, Aouissi said that Algeria had drawn up a programme aimed at boosting energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies, with all the measures and incentives in place for energy-intensive sectors, including public lighting, in order to preserve and enhance energy resources while limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
“A national energy plan is also being drawn up, in collaboration with the energy-intensive sectors, which will help to develop a prospective approach through the transition to renewable energy, as well as energy efficiency in all sectors, including transport, industry, housing and public lighting,” added the official.
This approach will enable the setting up of a medium- and long-term roadmap with the aim of guaranteeing, in addition to energy security, a flexible energy transition, according to the Ministry’s General Secretary, who cited, among other objectives, “the implementation of procedures relating to energy efficiency through the adoption of new solutions able to reduce the national demand for energy.”
Referring to the importance of national public lighting network, particularly in view of the expansion of the urban road and motorway network, Aouissi said that the overall consumption of public lighting would amount to 6,500 megawatts by 2021, i.e. 40% of the country’s global electricity consumption, which explains the need to implement the national public lighting efficiency programme and rationalize its consumption.
Over the past few years, public authorities have been rolling out efficient public lighting in all the country’s regions, including the use of solar energy, in addition to the renovation of public lighting and the gradual use of energy-saving lamps (LEDs), which currently account for more than 30% of national consumption, he added.
This initiative would be reinforced by “the launch of a programme for the use of solar energy in public lighting, starting initially in the south of the country, especially as the State intends to encourage the local energy-saving lamp industry in order to reduce the import bill.
For his part, the Director General of the National Agency for the Promotion and Rationalisation of Energy Use (APRUE), Merouane Chabane, who is organising this meeting in collaboration with the African Energy Commission (AFREC), outlined Algeria’s roadmap for energy transition by 2035.
This roadmap is one of the priorities of President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and aims to boost renewable energy production capacity to 15 GW, while reducing national primary energy consumption by at least 15%.