Loading...

People, Environment & Energy Development (PEEDA), an ACCESS member and Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) held a side event on December 5th at the Nepal Pavilion. The goal was to highlight the opportunities and potential interventions to accelerate electric cooking scale up in Nepal and beyond. The event drew on findings from Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS), an eight-year programme funded by UK Aid (FCDO), and other global partners.

Over 30 representatives from key stakeholder groups, such as the global clean cooking and electricity sectors attended the talks, including Nawa Raj Dhakal, the Executive Director of Alternative Energy Promotion Centre, Nepal (AEPC), Justine Akumu, Senior Energy Officer, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Uganda, Professor Ed Brown, Director of MECS Programme, and Richard Sieff (MECS). A lively panel discussion followed where the first three speakers were joined by Ben Jeffreys, CEO and Co-Founder of ATEC Global, and Biraj Gautam, CEO of PEEDA.

Event highlights

The panel discussion emphasised the event’s central message that there are a range of practical evidence-based interventions with the potential to accelerate scaled eCooking transitions in Nepal and beyond.

A central theme was the scope for carbon finance to address affordability in terms of buying new electric cooking appliances, including the scope for schemes which directly link incentive payments to the use of electric cooking stoves. ATEC Global are currently piloting one scheme in Bangladesh and Cambodia, which will see households receive 70% of the funds from carbon credits received from using an IoT enabled induction stove instead of their previous polluting traditional stoves.

Praising Nepal’s track record of delivering clean cooking solutions such as the nationwide biogas programmes in the 1990s, ATEC CEO, Ben Jeffreys emphasised how the country’s abundant hydro resources provided the perfect energy setup for net zero electric cooking. To help accelerate this transition, Mr Jeffreys called for Nepal to accelerate policy development on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in order to tap into global carbon trading opportunities.

Ms Akumu highlighted how in Uganda the public utility UMEME had been a driving force behind electric cooking uptake. To accelerate electric cooking, Ms Akumu pointed put how the utility had supported a mass eCooking promotion, which generated income for the utility, led to the introduction of ambitious policy targets, incentives for local manufacturing for eCooking appliances, and a new ‘e-Cooking tariff’.

The @e-Cooking Tariff was highly significant since it signalled the country’s readiness for electric cooking – a huge important promotional message for increasing consumer confidence. Going forward, UMEME has trained utility engineers to repair electric cooking appliances, increased the vitally needed after-sales services and is exploring on-building financing.

Reflecting on Kenya’s experience, Kenyan energy consultant Michelle Akute emphasized the importance of electric cooking for the Kenyan utility, Kenya Power. The utility’s flagship programme ‘Pika na Power,’ meaning cook with electricity, educates customers on how clean, efficient, and affordable electric cooking is.

Biraj Gautam (PEEDA) pointed out that there was an urgent need to raise awareness of the cost-saving benefits of electric cooking at scale and the need to develop local repair services and mass promotion activities to ensure these benefits are realized.

Prof Ed Brown (Loughborough University, UK) highlighted how the new Global Electric Cooking Coalition (GeCCo) that was launched at COP28 could support interventions to scale up eCooking in Nepal through its collaboration platform of global and national eCooking advocates. He highlighted the clear opportunities for electric cooking in Nepal and welcomed Nepal to join GeCCo and collaborate together to accelerate eCooking transitions.

Reflecting on these observations, Nawa Raj Dhakal (AEPC) and event chair Secretary Gopal Prasad Sigdel, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation in Nepal, commended the launch of GeCCO and its aims to support national initiatives for the successful accomplishment of promoting cooking energy transition towards electric cooking.

Secretary Sidgel noted how the session had highlighted opportunities for utilities to play a key role in supporting electric cooking transitions through active promotions, favourable tariffs, upgrading household wiring and meters, and integrated planning of electrification and clean cooking. He stated these insights were “very useful for learning and sharing among the countries who are driving the electric cooking as their national priority.”

When closing the session, the Secretary called for organizations to support and work together with the government in meaningful and impactful collaboration to help Nepal achieve its electric cooking goals.