Energy 24 (1999) 493500

www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

On household energy consumption for rural development: a study on Yangzhong County of China
Xiaohua Wanga,*, Zhengmin Fenga, Xingfeng Gaob, Kui Jiangc
a

Agricultural Engineering College, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210032, Peoples Republic of China b Rural Energy Ofce of Yangzhong County, Yangzhong, Peoples Republic of China c Rural Energy Ofce of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu, Peoples Republic of China Received 25 January 1998

Abstract Villages of Yangzhong County, typical of comparatively well-off countryside in Eastern China, are in a period of rapid transformation of their energy consumption from non-commercial to commercial. A veyear questionnaire of rural household energy consumption showed marked change in energy consumption structure, rapid increase in electricity and LPG consumption, decrease in straw and stalks and coal energy consumption, relatively stable per capita energy consumption between 290 and 300 kgce, but a little increase in effective energy consumption. It is shown that per capita energy consumption relates to per capita income, average number of persons per household, and per capita output of crops. This paper discussed the nature of rural household energy consumption, the general features of comparatively well-off rural household energy consumption in China, etc. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The energy problem in rural areas is a common one for all developing countries in the world at present. The backwardness in economy in rural area resulted in no commercial energy supply for the long past. The rural households mainly depend biomass energy (straw and stalks) and other energy available locally. Therefore, there have been very few developing countries that listed rural household energy consumption in their energy program over a long time in the past. The excessive use of local energy resources for some regions has led to the destruction of their

* Corresponding author. Fax: 86 25 886 2565; e-mail: wangxh@jlonline.com 0360-5442/99/$ - see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 6 0 - 5 4 4 2 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 0 6 - 7

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ecological environment to a certain extent due to growing population and shortage of natural resources. The rural household energy consumption in China showed some common patterns with other developing countries. Large scale studies on rural household energy consumption started from the middle of the 1970s in China. A nation wide investigation conducted in 1979 showed that 47.7% of rural households did not have enough fuel available for 36 months and the ratio of energy supply to demand was 22%. A cooperative sample survey and on-the-spot investigation by Agricultural Ministry, Forestry Ministry of China and ESMAP (Energy Sector Management Assistance Program organized by the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, etc.), carried out from 1987 to 1991 in Hengnan County of Hunai Province, Xiushui County of Jiangxi Province, Kezuo County of Liaoning Province, Jianyang County of Sichuan Province, Changshu County of Jiangsu Province, and Huantai County of Shangdong Province, showed that big differences existed in rural household energy consumption amount and pattern among different regions, and these differences mainly depended on the availability of the local energy. The annual household energy consumption was about 7001200 kgce (we use 7000 kcal/kgce), 4060% of which was used for cooking, and 6090% was biomass energy. The heat efciencies of stoves were 10 20% [18]. The rural household energy consumption is undergoing a great change with the rapid development of rural economy and society, and the rise of living standards of farmers in China. The follow-up survey and study for several years in succession is necessary to learn the process, inuential factors and rules of this change, which are extremely signicant to the energy consumption-supply balance and energy policy making for such a big country with about 80% of its population living in rural areas. 2. Description of Yangzhong County and design of the questionnaire Yangzhong County, the second largest delta in the Yangzi River, has been developing its rural economy rapidly since the initiation of Chinas Open Door Policy in 1978. It was the 11th richest county in Jiangsu Province, with RMB (Chinese yuan) 13 969 of its per capita income, becoming a comparatively well-off county from 1993, with 95 points scaled by the national and provincial standards of comprehensive evaluation for rural areas richness. Its per capita income of rural household was RMB1661, 2455, 3388 and 4414 in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996, respectfully. As a result, its rural household energy consumption pattern has changed dramatically. The questionnaire for household energy consumption was designed and standardized. It contained references to social status, household energy consumption, cooking, and attitudes towards various energy sources. 384 households from twelve villages of four towns were sampled. The questionnaire had been carried out from 1993 to late 1997 in succession, and 600 000 data were obtained, which were processed by computer. 3. Household energy consumption levels and structures The rural household per capita energy consumption from 1992 to 1996, shown in Table 1, varied slightly between 290 and 300 kgce, without growing trends with respect to the per capita income.

X. Wang et al. / Energy 24 (1999) 493500 Table 1 Per capita rural household energy consumption of Yangzhong County (kgce) Year 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Firewood 12.32 (4.1%) 15.68 (4.9%) 2.64 (0.8%) 10.96 (3.8%) 30.91 (10.6%) Straw 185.71 (62.2%) 186.36 (57.7%) 203.23 (69.9%) 174.51 (60.4%) 137.47 (47.1%) Coal 57.15 (19.1%) 61.75 (19.1%) 28.53 (9.8%) 30.89 (10.6%) 34.95 (12.0%) Biogas 4.18 (1.4%) 6.14 (1.9%) 3.34 (1.0%) 0.77 (0.3%) 0.33 (0.1%) Kerosene 0.53 (0.2%) 0.78 (0.2%) 0.40 (0.1%) 0.16 (0.1%) 0.33 (0.1%) LPG 2.83 (0.9%) 9.31 (2.9%) 9.58 (3.3%) 21.25 (7.3%) 33.05 (11.3%) Electricity 36.00 (12.1%) 42.84 (13.3%) 43.88 (15.1%) 52.24 (18.0%) 54.99 (18.8%) Total 298.72 (100%) 322.86 (100%) 290.69 (100%) 290.79 (100%) 291.89 (100%)

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The rural household energy of Yanzhong County was obtained mainly from rewood, straw, coal, electricity, and LPG, etc. The energy consumption structure changed greatly during the ve years. The ratio of LPG consumption to the total energy consumption increased from 0.9% in 1992 to 11.3% in 1996, the electricity from 12.1% to 18.8%, but that of straw and coal consumption decreased from 62.6% and 19.1% to 47.1% and 12.0%, respectively. It is notable that the high quality energy sources represented by LPG increased dramatically in 1995 and 1996. Table 2 shows the percentages of households using different energy sources. 8.3% of households gave up straw in 1996 that had been the major energy source in the past. The percentage of households using coal as their energy source decreased from 99.7% in 1992 to 16.1% in 1996. The coal consumption of households which used coal as their major energy source increased from 57.32 to 217.08 kgce, showing that coal played no more of a role as a supplementary fuel when energy was in shortage. The LPG consumption of households that used LPG as their major energy source increased from 23.58 to 54.13 kgce, with an annual consumption of 5.23 bottles (15 kg/bottle). LPG has become a kind of emergency fuel for average households from a fashionable fuel used by rich households. The energy consumption pattern for most households is electricity straw LPG. The rural household per capita energy end-use is shown in Table 3. The most important energy end-use of rural households is for cooking (accounting for 6166%) both in the past and years to come. The energy consumption for food and water heating accounted for about 10%, but was
Table 2 Percentages of households using different energy sources Year 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Firewood 40.4 47.4 14.3 22.7 27.9 Straw 98.2 96.2 98.4 97.9 91.7 Coal 99.7 71.8 55.2 31.3 16.1 Biogas 15.4 13.8 12.5 5.5 4.4 Kerosene 43.5 40.6 19.3 8.3 6.3 LPG 12.0 21.6 36.2 59.6 61.9 Electricity 99.7 99.2 100.0 96.9 100.0

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Table 3 Rural household per capita energy end-use (kgce) Year Lighting Cooking Pig-feed heating 38.68 (13.1%) 45.73 (14.2%) 38.08 (13.1%) 22.11 (7.6%) 24.76 (8.5%) Water heating 41.02 (13.7%) 40.89 (12.7%) 14.08 (4.9%) 32.12 (11.0%) 23.82 (8.2%) House heating 1.55 (0.5%) 1.07 (0.3%) 1.18 (0.4%) 1.62 (0.6%) 0.90 (0.3%) Others Total

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996

36.27 (12.2%) 43.31 (13.4%) 43.89 (15.1%) 52.37 (18.0%) 54.83 (18.8%)

180.99 (66.6%) 190.76 (59.2%) 193.30 (66.5%) 181.35 (62.4%) 184.44 (63.2%)

0.22 (0.0%) 0.69 (0.2%) 0.16 (0.0%) 1.22 (0.4%) 3.05 (1.0%)

298.72 (100%) 322.86 (100%) 290.69 (100%) 290.79 (100%) 291.89 (100%)

decreasing for food heating due to the decreasing number of pigs raised per household (1.57, 2.93, 1.85, 1.47 and 1.04 from 1992 to 1996, respectively). The energy consumption for lighting and home appliance uses showed a relatively rapid growth. Per capita effective energy consumption was 59.81 and 63.45 kgce in 1992 and 1996 (Fig. 1), with annual growth of 1.49%, and elasticity of 0.054 with income. The effective energy from straw decreased from 62.1% to 43.3%, but LPG increased from 2.8% to 31.2%, becoming the second most important energy source. LPG, due to its high efciency, provides much higher effective energy than the ratio of its original energy to the total energy consumption. 4. Analysis of interrelated factors to per capita energy consumption The interrelationship analysis was made using per capita energy consumption (T) as the function of per household pig number (P), per capita crops yield (F), number of persons per household (N) and per capita income (I). The SPSS software was applied for the analysis. The number of persons per household and per capita crops yield showed higher interrelationship with per capita energy consumption. Per capita income and per capita crops yield showed positive interrelation-

Fig. 1. Rural household effective energy structure for cooking use.

X. Wang et al. / Energy 24 (1999) 493500 Table 4 Interrelationship coefcients of inuential factors of per capita energy consumption T T P F N I 1.0000 0.0606 0.4217 0.5424 0.5758 P 0.0606 1.0000 0.6754 0.0595 0.5038 F 0.4217 0.6754 1.0000 0.0888 0.3762 N 0.5424 0.0595 0.0888 1.0000 0.7825 I 0.5758 0.5038 0.3762 0.7825 1.0000

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ship with per capita energy consumption, but the number of persons per household negative (Table 4). Table 5 shows the trends of per capita energy consumption with respect to per capita income. Generally, per capita energy consumption increased with per capita income, especially when per capita income was higher. The average annual consumption growth rate of electricity was evidently higher than that of total energy consumption. Per capita energy consumption and per capita electricity consumption showed weak elasticity with per capita income, but the elasticity of per capita commercial energy consumption (0.36) was evidently higher than that of per capita total energy consumption (0.17) [9]. Table 6 shows the change of rural household per capita energy consumption with household size from 1992 to 1996. The larger the household size, the less the per capita energy consumption. Take 1992 as an example. Per capita energy consumption of three-person, four-person and veperson household were less by 8.1, 2.9 and 11.8% than that of two-person, three-person and fourperson household, respectively. The rural households in Yangzhong County tends to be smaller in the recent years. The number of persons per household is 3.95, 3.83, 3.79, 3.71 and 3.61 from 1992 to 1996, respectively. As a result, per capita energy demand tends to be a little higher.
Table 5 Rural household per capita energy consumption (kgce) by per capita income Year Cash income (yuan/cap) 500 5001000 10001500 15002000 20002500 > 2500 Average

Total energy consumption 1992 213.6 259.5 1993 248.3 284.2 1994 229.4 170.4 1995 206.2 271.6 1996 217.7 257.7 Electricity consumption included 1992 19.2 27.3 1993 26.3 26.6 1994 37.0 38.2 1995 36.7 34.3 1996 42.5 48.1

302.9 331.5 258.6 239.5 266.6 39.3 34.5 32.0 31.3 49.9

296.7 302.8 258.9 229.4 292.2 37.6 42.5 37.0 33.3 42.3

298.8 330.6 264.2 254.6 269.4 38.4 40.0 30.9 44.1 52.1

380.5 342.2 310.2 317.5 301.4 47.4 56.6 47.7 57.1 57.2

298.7 322.9 290.7 290.8 291.9 36.3 43.4 43.9 52.4 54.8

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Table 6 Rural household per capita energy consumption (kgce) by household size Year Number of persons per household 2 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 344.38 433.60 353.60 332.81 405.13 3 316.29 355.46 309.09 291.53 295.89 4 307.22 333.44 277.91 273.48 245.59 5 270.88 254.80 250.05 232.24 197.67 6 217.36 246.06 244.49 210.02 175.45 7 217.92 274.80 215.87 206.33 141.38 Mean 297.50 324.14 288.78 290.79 291.89

Table 7 shows that per capita energy consumption increased with per capita crops yield, This was especially evident for heating energy which was obtained mainly from straw, suggesting that rural household energy consumption depends on the availability of local biomass energy source. 5. Features and trends of rural household energy consumption In the process of the whole rural areas of Yangzhong County to become comparatively welloff, although household per capita energy consumption is generally stable, the effective energy consumption tends to be higher due to the change of the energy consumption structure. High quality commercial energy source (LPG and electricity) is in a rapid process to replace the traditional energy sources (straw and coal), which is a common feature of rural household energy consumption for comparatively developed regions. The main reason for the rapid increase of electricity and LPG consumption is that farmers with higher income expect higher living standards. And this is made possible through the improvement of rural power supply works and their reliability, and the establishment of a large number of LPG repacking stations in rich rural areas. It is impossible to replace non-commercial energy by commercial energy within a short period of time for rural households of Yangzhong County. Within the coming three to four years, while per capita effective energy demand is increased slowly, LPG consumption will be further
Table 7 Rural per capita energy consumption (kgce) by per capita crop yield Year Crop yield (kg/cap) 100 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 146.4 323.2 211.5 272.0 364.9 100350 223.9 242.5 220.0 214.1 226.1 350600 313.8 337.2 286.1 268.0 275.9 600850 386.1 418.8 396.5 395.5 434.2 8501250 458.9 508.5 472.9 472.6 448.2 > 1250 642.9 536.0 806.1 727.9 571.0 Mean 298.7 322.9 290.7 290.8 291.9

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increased, and come to be the major effective energy source. Straw will be the second important energy source. Coal will be used by fewer and fewer households, and will not be as a supplementary energy source. During this process, there will be no more scrambling for straw as fuel, feed, fertilizer and as raw materials of rural industries. The importance should be attached to the reasonable application of straw. 6. Considerations on household energy consumption in comparatively well-off rural areas in China Both similarities and differences exist in the features of rural household energy consumption and other household living articles. Energy consumption is mainly for the purpose of living and enjoyment, the former being for necessary living requirement, and the latter for higher living requirement in terms of comfort, convenience and sanitation, etc. From the point of expenses, no payment in cash is needed for locally available biomass energy sources (straw, rewood, etc.), but households must pay cash for commercial energy such as LPG, coal, etc. In the past, most Chinese rural areas used to depend mainly on biomass energy sources, and commercial energy sources were only for higher living requirements, decided by households nancial status and availability of commercial energy. Rural household energy consumption generally shows the following features: 1. Reasonability of rural household energy consumption, suited to the local conditions of resources, economy, living standards and energy supply, which decides the per capita energy consumption level and its stability for the necessary living energy consumption demand. 2. Structure of several energy sources for a certain demand of effective energy consumption, which may differ greatly among different areas, and changes with the increase of income and the improvement of energy supply. 3. Substitution ability of some energy sources, which can ensure certain effective energy demand when one energy source in shortage is replaced by another one. The substitution of lower quality energy sources by higher quality ones, which is non-reversible, exists with the improvement of living conditions. 4. Stratum of energy consumption pattern, level and structure of households of different income, in which household energy sources selection are limited by its nancial situation and urgency for energy demand. 5. Variability of household energy consumption with energy availability, showing a possibility for households to adjust their energy consumption amount through modication of their energy consumption behavior, and a certain potentiality in effective application of household energy. When the cost to use a certain local natural energy source is very low, it is inevitable that excessive use of this energy source will take place, and the consumption of it will go beyond its reasonable availability. 6. Symbolization for psychological demand in expecting comfortable living conditions, i.e., to show peoples richness and higher social status through using high quality energy sources. Well-off living standards are a further step following a living condition with only living necessities, in which energy consumption is required to be suited in quality and quantity to the improve-

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ment of means of livelihood, consumption structure, housing condition and cultural living standards. The major features in the difference of energy consumption between these two periods lie in the rapid increase of high quality energy sources demand, less consideration of expenses in seeking for comfortable living conditions, replacement of large amount of traditional energy sources by ever increasing commercial energy supply which provides over 50% of effective heat, higher per capita effective energy demand, over 1200 Cal in the regions without heating systems, and rapid increase of electricity consumption with over 150 kWh of per capita annual demand at present. References
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