Ethiopia has made bold moves to transform its energy system—building dams, expanding transmission lines, and launching national strategies like the Electrification Program and the Clean Cooking Roadmap. But despite these massive efforts, the country still loses an estimated $72 billion annually due to lack of access to clean cooking. Worse, by 2020, dependence on solid fuels had actually increased by 50% since the year 2000.
What’s going wrong? The problem lies in the gap between policy and practice. While energy plans look great on paper, the reality in homes and kitchens tells a different story. As any cook knows, a good recipe doesn’t guarantee a good meal. What matters are the tools available, the condition of the kitchen, and the cook’s skills. The same is true for energy: usage—not just supply—determines outcomes.
This article, the first in a series on energy in everyday life, focuses on electricity use in Ethiopian kitchens. How it is used, how it is wasted and how simple changes—many of them affordable and practical—can unlock significant benefits at a national scale.
Small wastes, big costs
Let’s start with a surprising fact: in Addis Ababa alone, an estimated 218 GWh of electricity is wasted each year due to common household cooking inefficiencies. That is enough to power over 650,000 homes—or nearly three-quarters of the annual output of one of Ethiopia’s major hydropower plants.
These losses don’t come from major breakdowns or faulty grid connections. They come from everyday activities, repeated across hundreds of thousands of homes: baking injera, boiling water, cooking stew. It’s the energy we lose not through malfunction, but through habit.
The Injera bottleneck
Among all these activities, Injera baking stands out. It is the most electricity-intensive task in the kitchen. A typical electric mitad uses 3.5 kilowatts, and most households use it multiple times a week. While that rating is common, it is also excessive—it is technically feasible to design Injera bakers that operate at around 2 kilowatts. But for now, let’s set aside hardware redesign and focus instead on the everyday usage practices that drive inefficiency.
A major inefficiency? Spreading the batter. On average, it takes around 25 seconds per Injera to do this manually—time during which the mitad is powered on but not actually baking. That seemingly small delay adds up to a huge number across the city—about 85 GWh per year wasted.
This is not a critique of cooking traditions. It is a design problem. With better tools—simple mechanical innovations or improved mitad surfaces—we could cut that time to 5 seconds without compromising the quality of the Injera. The energy savings would be immediate.
But asking every household to upgrade is unrealistic. That is why one promising solution is the creation of public Injera baking centers: clean, shared facilities equipped with efficient systems. These centers would reduce energy use, smooth grid demand, and lower electricity bills. They would also reduce the labor burden on women, improve indoor air quality, and create jobs—especially for urban youth.
If rolled out citywide, this model could employ thousands of people in roles such as baking, delivery, customer service, and maintenance. In a time of rising youth unemployment, this is more than just an energy idea—it’s a blueprint for dignified, community-based employment.
The hidden burden of hot plates
Electric hot plates are common in urban homes, often drawing about 800 watts and used daily. But most of these devices are dirty, inefficient, and outdated. Covered in soot, grime, and food spills, and paired with warped or unclean pots, they create poor thermal contact—leading to about 15% energy loss.
This might seem small. But across 1.2 million households, that amounts to 52 GWh per year wasted. Switching to efficient models with better heat transfer surfaces could recover another 81 GWh per year.
The issue is not that efficient appliances don’t exist—they do. The problem is that they are priced out of reach for most families. Meanwhile, rising electricity tariffs fall hardest on the poorest. So low-income households often pay the most—not in total kilowatt-hours, but in inefficiency, time, and opportunity lost. And because women do the majority of cooking, they bear the greatest burden—of heat, smoke, time pressure, and financial cost.
Why this matters now
Urbanization is accelerating. The population is growing. So is demand for electricity. But the power supply isn’t keeping pace, and grid stress is becoming more frequent. Yet most policy discussions still focus on generation: how to produce more electricity. Far less attention is paid to how it is actually used.
If this pattern continues, Ethiopia will fall short of its electrification goals—not because it lacks power, but because too much of it is wasted at the point of use. We are at a crossroads: will we keep building supply without fixing usage, or will we address the inefficiencies hiding in plain sight?
From use to justice: Efficiency as equity
In 2023, Ethiopia’s GDP grew by over 6%, but electricity demand grew by just 1.6%. That widening gap is not a sign of energy efficiency. It is a warning sign that the system is not delivering power where people need it most.
We must stop thinking of energy as just infrastructure and start thinking of it as a lived experience—in kitchens, homes, and neighborhoods. The losses may seem ordinary, but their consequences are national.
Clean cooking is not a niche issue. It is where energy policy becomes practice, where infrastructure meets inequality, and where small improvements unlock massive gains.
Power, policy and opportunity
What could we do with the 218 GWh wasted each year? We could:
- Power over 650,000 homes.
- Reduce peak grid demand in Addis Ababa.
- Lower household electricity bills.
- Improve air quality and health.
- Create jobs in manufacturing, service, and maintenance.
Even more, a portion of that saved energy could be exported to neighboring countries like Sudan and Djibouti, which still rely on fossil-fuel generation. That could earn Ethiopia over $15 million per year in foreign exchange. At a time when hard currency is scarce, these savings aren’t just environmental—they are economic and strategic.
A Green Legacy that begins at the stove Ethiopia’s green legacy has made trees and reforestation a national priority. That is essential. But sustainability must go beyond forests. A truly green legacy must reach into homes, into habits, and into the small systems that shape daily life. It must start where people cook.
The good news is we don’t need massive new investments to make progress. With better designs, cleaner tools, and smarter practices, we can recover electricity, empower families, and create jobs—all by improving how we use the energy we already have.
Editor’s Note: Tsegaye Nega is a Professor Emeritus at Carleton College in the United States and Founder and CEO of Anega Energies Manufacturing: https://anegaenergiesmanufacturing.org/
BY TSEGAYE NEGA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 11 JUNE 2025
