| The Backbone of development is energy.It exists and exploitable.It is needed for all activities and there is no substitute.To provide access to affordable,reliable,sustainable and modern energy for all is a challenge facing every country that concerns everyone.Thus meeting the globe's energy demand is a great challenge for society.However,modern societies' energy demands are steadily growing.In addition,today,about 2.7 billion individuals depend on traditional biomass fuels for cooking and 20 per cent of the world's population still lacks access to electricity.Consequently,we need to fight energy poverty successfully in order to meet the globe's energy needs.For some nations,addressing such challenges appears to be too difficult.In Guinea for instance,a lack of awareness and strong policies has contributed to the misuse of energy resources.This is further compound by the low electrification of the country.To illustrate,Guinea's electricity sector has been managed since 1953 before the national independence by EEG(Electrical Energy of Guinea).Yet statistics indicate that the country has experienced a low electrification rate of around 7% in 1992 and 34% in 2015 against an average 40% worldwide.Although,Guinea has several years of experiences in the energy sector but major problems still remain.EDG(Electricité de Guinée),which is currently in charge of maintenance,rehabilitation,development of works,operating equipment,transport and distribution in Guinea is facing severe transmission and distribution(T&D)losses leading to an increase load shedding and losses of revenues.Consistence to this is the fact that electricity losses in Guinea are estimated at more than 30%.In addition,the widespread fraud suffered by the operator of the electric sector in Guinea,which was left with a financial scheme entirely defective,blocked any possibility of improvement of production equipment and distribution and thus compromised any chance of improving the quality of services.These frauds are supported by bad habits in both levels consumers(e.g.,electricity thefts,unpaid bills)and Government(e.g.,Lack of strong policies,maintenance & investment).From the above,it is evident that Government and general media often collapse to yield the sustainable behavior change that is planned,perhaps because they only strive to promote pro-environmental knowledge and behavior by merely scattering information.Nonetheless,taking into account that Guinea is implementing the construction of several small and large hydro powers(SHP&LHP),it is therefore necessary to assess the feasibilities of a universal access scenario and the behaviors change intended to sustain those feasibilities.To do so,this study empirically explores these feasibilities in achieving a universal access scenario in Guinea.Household and government commitment was hypothesized as a mediating variable in the energy practices and household performance.Besides the mediating mechanism this study also looked into the moderating role of achieving a universal access in Guinea into achieving the sustainable development goal(SDG7)in 2030.In objectives to reach these goals this research was designed to address several critical questions.Namely,to determine the various opportunities to achieve a universal access in Guinea;to evaluate the required installed capacity for a universal access in the country;to determine the difference and similarities between Guinea's primary energy generation and consumption;and more importantly to assess how the nation's energy system can be enhanced and the policies measures that the country should implement to disrupt undesirable behaviors(e.g.,thefts,unpaid bills etc.).In objectives,to stimulate the perception of the respondents;research design from our recent published article was used.Thus,questionnaire in this regard was used in objectives to investigate Guinea's household energy conservation and behavior.Both open and closed ended questions were used for scaling.In objectives to assess the proprieties of the data and sample characteristics collected from the materiel,descriptive and inferential statistics were used.In addition,we examined 11 Guinean websites and energy companies such as EDG to identify any across household knowledge on household's energy conservation and efficiency.We also investigated 24 years of Guinea's primary energy generation and consumption in order to identify any anomalies in the trends.Furthermore,a quick interview was undertaken at the ministry of energy and hydraulics in Guinea.Unfortunately,taking into account the data shortage in Guinea such as physical elements(e.g.,appliances,building characteristics,etc.)and human variables(e.g.,lifestyles,beliefs,demographics,etc.),consequently,in our survey the missing data falls in the stance of noncoverage,since the sample provides no information about the missing elements(physical elements and human variables)and thus they went unrepresented.In addition,the weighting adjustments could not be done because it could not be based on any external data sources.These facts were the limit of this study.Nevertheless,the research revealed that with a projected population in 2030 of 17,631,380 inhabitants,estimations stipulate that Guinea would need 1953 to 2508 MW in order to reach a universal access scenario at that same year.It is worth noting that currently Guinea has an installed capacity of 479 MW.The study also demonstrates that,barriers to the plan are primarily social and political,not technological or economic.In addition,reaching this universal access will be a significant step in the achievement of the sustainable development goal(SDG7)—to “provide access to affordable,reliable,sustainable and modern energy for all”.This is because a country such as Guinea that has been deprived for electricity for so many years would demonstrate by achieving this objective that a universal access is quite possible and in very short period.This in turn will prompt a social comparison.That is,showing how people act in a given situation would prompt conformity. |
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