Assessment of trend and determinant factors for household energy utilization choice in urban areas of Ethiopia: Case of Eastern Amhara

The major energy consuming sector in Ethiopia is the domestic usage. Cooking takes the major share from household energy consumption. Although urban areas of Ethiopia are mainly accessible to electricity, most households still mainly depend on biomass-based energy sources, which are very traditional and associated with inefficient technologies. The primary objective of this study is to assess the general trend of household energy utilization and the factors that affect the choice of energy sources and the associated energy technologies in urban areas of Eastern Amhara. The study analyzes the primary and secondary data collected from the selected sample of households and experts in the study area. The study covers the determinant factors for household energy choice, especially for cooking application; the community awareness level, the energy appliance types in use, the energy experts’ contribution, and the future energy/energy technology demand. The analysis is conducted mainly based on demographic variables such as residence type, educational status, and availability of technology. The result shows that the energy sources type and the energy technology preference at the household level are largely depend on the education level of house heads and type of residence they live in. For instance; 76.3%, 34.1%, and 22.5% of the households are who are living in the condominium, own apartment, and rented houses respectively are using electricity for injera baking. Model to validate the findings of the descriptive statistics, to estimate the trend and relations among different factors for the whole population of the study region has been developed.