Geetha Reddy

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Urban Settlements Size & Cooking Energy An Appraisal of Andhra Pradesh

Geetha Reddy Anant

Introduction:

Cooking Fuel Choices by households are reflections of fuel availability,

personal capacities and preferences and project the prospective demand for

particular energy carriers. Studies on these dimensions of household energy

consumption commenced in the 1980s and have since expanded in scope.

Beginning with pricing and subsidies, they expanded to include supply-

demand projections, transitions, substitutions, impact on user health and

clean fuel technology propagation. Two very important concerns are the need

emphasis on clean fuel use vis-s vis solid fuels to reduce burden of disease,

and energy consumption reduction mechanisms. This necessitates the

understanding of the nuances of cooking energy choices, preferences,

transitions, substitutions as settlements sizes-energy choice inter-relation,

and as products of household incomes.

In the developing countries/ regions in particular, the use of multiple fuels

due to insecure supply system and individual socio-economic disposition,

persists. The nature of this trend is appraised with respect to the state of

Andhra Pradesh in India. The focus is on fuel choice and settlement size on

the one hand, and the income profile of select user households and the

income threshold for fuels, on the other. The data is essentially drawn from

the Census of India, complemented by a survey of 285 households (0.4%

sample) from different designated size classes of settlements, and data

previously collected for another study on household energy consumption inmetropolitan Hyderabad.

Significance of Fuel Choice:

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Fuel choice is a factor of resource availability, supply adequacy, price parity,

subsidy, and consumer awareness, as well as inter-sectoral demand related

competition. The kind of fuel used reflects the capacity of the system to

support transition to clean commercial

Table 1: Andhra Pradesh: Fuel Choice of Urban

Households

Regions

Commercial non-commercial

LPG Kerosene

Fuelwoo

d OthersAndhra

Pradesh 21.3 46.1 27.8 4.2

Telangana 29 48.8 17.4 4.8Rayalaseema 15.8 47.2 32.1 20.7Coastal

Andhra 13.7 35.3 47.2 3.8

Telangana-

Minus

Hyderabad 20.9 40.4 23.4 5.3Source: Computed form Census of India 2001

fuels by making them increasingly available and accessible. It hasimplications for the quality of life of user household in terms of both active

and passive users (all inhalers). The rural households are almost totally

traditional or solid fuel consumers with almost nil assessment - at best they

can be approximations projected with the help of case studies. In any case

with the escalating urbanisation, the demand for commercial fuels is growing

and the pollution implications here can be far greater than in rural areas that

essentially have open-to-sky kitchens.

The complexities of energy-development relations are yet to gain clarity (Smil

and Knowland -1980) but persistent inquiries alone can make inroads into

such information. In urban India in general the proportion of commercial

energy consumer households stands at 51 per cent, ranging from less than

10 percent in Orissa and Bihar states to over 51 percent in Maharashtra and

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Gujarat states (reddy, mjit, P.70). In Andhra Pradesh the share of commercial

energy users in urban settlements increased from just around 20 percent in

1991 to 67.4 per cent in 2001 - ranging from 77.8 in Telangana (61.3 if

Hyderabad is deleated), 63 in Rayalaseema and 49 percent in Coastal

Andhra. While policy implications (for distribution and pricing) have a strong

bearing, the impact of agricultural output and waste generation, the

prevalence of forests and coal fields have their own typical effects.

Settlement Size and Fuel Choices:

The size of settlements have a significant bearing and that is because of the

neglect of small and medium towns in terms of infrastructure amenities and

services, vis a vis the metro-cities. It is a universal fact that rural households

are essentially non-commercial energy dependent, given the near absence of

commercial fuel supply in the settlements.

Table 2: Andhra Pradesh: Cooking Fuel Choice of Households (2001)Size Class of

Settlements

(No.settlemen

ts)

Households (000) Using Different Cooking Fuels

LPG Kerosene Fuelwood

Other

s

Total

HouseholdsHyd 298 279 24 1 602I (76) 1511 763 667 95 3036II(43) 230 68 263 27 588III(47) 134 41 169 21 365IV(22) 29 8 37 3 77V(21) 20 9 29 2 60VI (2) 0.3 0.1 1 0.6 2

All

2222.3(47.

3) 1168.1 1190 149.6

4730 (100)

Source: Obtained and computed, from Census of India, 2001

The elements of choice and compulsions determine these trends and

patterns. Developing countries offer a wide choice in all rural areas and

numerous urban areas with respect to traditional and free fuels, but with

respect to commercial fuels purchasing power at the individual level and

distribution at the institutional and marketing level constitute serious

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impediments. The tendency for larger settlements to consume more

commercial fuels exists. An appraisal of the share of households using

different energy sources shows that of the main commercial fuels LPG and

Kerosene, LPG dips off, becoming unsustainable in settlements with less than

25,000 population, and kerosene displays a very sharp drop at the 50,000

population size settlements itself. Fuelwoods significance increasing in the

second size class, its use in the class I settlements (100,000 population) by a

substantial proportion of households persists. It is interesting to note the

intersection

A.P.: Fuel Choice by Size Class of Settlements

-2001

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

metro I II III IV V VI

Siz e Class of Settlements

LPG

Kerosene

Fuelwood

Others

of Fuelwood with Kerosene at the 100,000 population size, while despite

being a more superior fuel, LPG intersects at the second size class of 60,000.

This is probably on account of the use of back-up fuels and combinations

rather than inter-fuel substitution apart from availability of LPG under

deepam scheme to the low income group households. The other energy

sources essentially agricultural residues and wood-droppings, gain

significance in the last size class of less than 10,000 population where the

number of even kerosene users drops. Respondents in some of the

household energy studies attributed this tendency to the availability of free

fuels (agro-waste and collected twigs). There is need and scope to obtain

more accurate energy threshold information from a wider data base and

improved precision tools.

Commercial and Non-Commercial Fuels

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The inverse relation between the commercial and non-commercial fuel users,

as also between the Size class of settlements and the commercial fuels/ non-

commercial fuels is

Andhra Pradesh:Commercial-Non-Commercial

Cooking Fuel Use (2001)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Metro I II III IV V VI

Size CLass of Urban Settlements

PercentHouseh

Series2

Series1

evident in the graph given above. The disparity between metropolitanHyderabad and the smallest urban settlements signifies the latters marginal

status in terms of access and affordability. This trend is not unexpected.

Commercial Energy LPG, Kerosene:

An appraisal of all the urban settlements is attempted here to examine the

possible relation between the size of settlements, percent of households

using particular fuels for the three most widely used energy sources LPG Kerosene and Fuelwood. The three commercial energy sources in use in India

are LPG, Kerosene and to a very limited extent electricity. Electricity is used

almost exclusively for food processing, storage and cooling. Hence its direct

use for active cooking is extremely limited and hence not taken into

consideration here.

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Commercial Energy Users

(2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50

No. of cities

%o

fHouseholds

ClassI

ClassII

ClassIII

ClassIV

ClassV

ClassVI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of LPG Users (2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

No. ofCities

%o

fHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Kerosine Users (2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 10 20 30 40 50

No. of Cities

%o

fHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class I

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The proportion of households using commercial energy across all the six

settlement sizes shows over 60 percent in the highest size class, 40 to 70

percent in the second category,

30 to 60 percent in the third category. The fourth size class displays a mix of

the patterns common to the first three and last two, and the proportions

range from 10 to 65 per cent. It can be considered a transition size.

Commercial energy consumer households in the last two size classes

constitute less than 35 percent of the total households.

As compared to the aggregate figures of combined commercial fuel

consumer households, LPG consumers, within each size class the more

populous settlements tend to have higher proportion of LPG consumers as

substantiated by the slight (250) gradient in the distribution from Y to X

axis in all the categories. This underscores the earlier statement of demand

threshold.

Compared to LPG, kerosene does not entail heavy upfront costs. Both the

cooking stoves and the fuel are easily available in the market unlike LPG.

Hence its use as main fuel and as back-up fuel persists. The distribution of

kerosene users in each of the urban settlement is more clearly displayed in

the graph, than in the case of LPG. The class I towns at one end and the class

five and six towns at the other end seem to form their own group/ cluster,

leaving the class II and III to form their own cluster.

Traditional Fuels (Non-Commercial Fuels) Use:

The use of traditional fuels is on account of non-availability or inaccessibility

of commercial fuels due to affordability handicaps, or due to apprehension of

using something non-accustomed to, and also because of free availability of

traditional fuels. The possibility of the last is highest in rural settlements and

small towns located in close proximity to agricultural regions and forest

areas. In the urban areas the traditional and freely available energy sources

include wood, twigs, charcoal, cow-dung cakes, etc in

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Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Non-Commercial Energy users

(2001)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 10 20 30 40 50

No.of Cities

%

ofHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Firewood users (2001)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

No. of Cities

%

ofHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

that order. Not all are freely available, but they are all freely accessible, and

can be purchased in small quantities according to the purse strings of the

household. A comparison of the non-commercial or traditional fuel users with

the users of only fuelwood shows no difference because of the predominance

of fuelwood among the various traditional energy sources.

It was noted in earlier studies on household energy preferences in urban

(Reddy 1997) and metropolitan (Alam et al 1995) areas that culture and

menu specificity also impacts fuelwood consumption for cooking. But

gradually, this is declining, with the changing work structure of household

members and mushrooming of traditional food outlets (who prepare and

market food cooked on fuelwood stoves in fact specific woods alone are

used). The end-use of fuelwood used to be water heating across all income

groups but has been gradually relegated to the low income households, the

affluent having switched to electrical appliances for water heating, electric

stoves and LPG for cooking and electricity for lighting. The incidence of

fuelwood use in higher order settlements is o account of the low income

dwellers, the slum dwellers and the sub-urban residents who constitute

household of the settlements but whose lifestyles are still rural in nature.

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Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Commercial Energy Users

(2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10 20 30 40 50

No. of cities

%o

fHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Non-Commercial Energy users

(2001)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 10 20 30 40 50

No.of Cities

%o

fHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of LPG Users (2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

No. ofCities

%o

fHouseholds

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Kerosine Users (2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 10 20 30 40 50

No. of Cities

%o

fHouseholds

ClassI

ClassII

ClassIII

ClassIV

ClassV

ClassI

Andhra Pradesh: Distribution of Firewood users (2001)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

No. of Cities

%o

fHousehol

Class I

Class II

Class III

Class IV

Class V

Class VI

A clear distinction is evident between the proportion of specific cooking fuel

users (traditional versus commercial fuels) across the different size classes of

settlements, with the prominence of the lower order and higher order

settlements highlighting the higher share of traditional - lower order solid

fuels and commercial modern higher order fuels respectively. The middle

order settlements in both cases project the transition stage of household and

settlements alike halfway up the energy transition ladder.

The difference between the cooking energy consumption patterns of

metropolitan households (settlements) and the non-metropolitan households

(settlements) is very high. In order to obtain a clearer picture of the other

settlements the few metropolitan settlements have been deleted from the

graph. Two factors are to be noted the first is with respect to the socio-

economic factors impacting fuel choice, and the second is the prospective

demand for commercial energy from the household sector together with its

implications for subsidies, healthcare, and supply preparedness.

Socio-economic Determinants of Fuel Choice:

Households in most developing countries use a wide range of cooking fuels

and the transition to clean commercial fuels is yet to take place, with

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saturation levels still at 30 (in African countries) and 60 (Asian and Latin

American countries). Most of even those households that have commenced

commercial fuel use depend on back-up fuels because of supply as well as

purchasing power uncertainties. As a result one finds widespread and a range

of fuel mixes. LPG-elctricity, LPG-kerosene, LPG-kerosene-fuelwood, LPG

kerosene-charcoal, kerosene-fuelwood, kerosene charcoal, fuelwood-

charcoal, fuelwood-cow-dung cakes, wood shavings-cowdung cakes,

fuelwood-agricultural residue, as the more common combinations. Among

these only the electricity-LPG combination users may be stated to be energy

secure households. The rest of the households are subjected and vulnerable

to fuel supply and pricing fluctuations.

In India in general and Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad) in particular, income,

education, culture wield equal influence on fuel choice, fuel-mixes, and

quantum cooking fuel consumed, as per the 1994 and 1997 studies. This is

still applicable, but to a declining degree. Awareness and policy interventions

through pricing, subsidies, free supplies have actually jumped the energy-

ladder trends facilitating the switch from fuelwood to LPG. Thus while the

natural change in household energy choice and use is evident because of

increasing affordability and availability, but facilitating factors are important

push-factors enabling the low income households to more ahead. As a result

one finds households that use exclusive fuels as well as fuel-mixes.

Exclusive fuel users are not too many, and are essentially metropolitan

households with assured commercial energy supplies. They constitute less

than one-third of the all households. A survey of 265 households across small

and medium towns (geeta - 2002) projected the predominance of LPG as

main fuel (32 % households) followed by fuelwood and kerosene (12 %

households). A hefty 51.7 percent of the sample households use fuel-mixes

and that is mainly due to supply uncertainties (as stated earlier) with respect

to higher income households, and affordability and supply uncertainty among

low income households. Less than two percent respondents entertain fuel

mixes and that is on account of menu specificity and special dishes.

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An examination of the cooking fuel security position of the urban households

projects that 58 percent households face severe, 29 percent households

medium and 13 percent households experience mild fuel insecurity. The

tendency to switch to solid fuels and the frequency of such switch-overs (also

called inter-fuel substitution) adversely affects the health of the active users.

Andhra Pradesh: Fuel Use in Smal l a nd

Medium Towns (2001)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Income Decile

NumberUserHousehold LPG

Kero

FW

LPG-Ker

LPG-FW

FW-Ker

Other

Andhra Pradesh: Main Fuel of Households

Across Income Groups, Field Survey, 2000

0

20

40

60

80

100

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Income Decile

Fuelwoo

d

Agri.

Residue

Kerosen

e

LPG

The above graphs show fuel use trends across the income decile. Both LPG

and fuelwood project income-impact, with the former displaying a sharp riseat the 8th income level i.e. it can be inferred that a per capita monthly

income of Rs. 800 constitutes the threshold supporting LPG use the

cleanest of available fuels. Similarly, with respect to the most polluting of the

available fuels fuelwood use projects a sharp fall at the second income group

but again experiences a rise in the fourth group. This trend can be better

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understood when one examines it vis a vis the fuel mix of kerosene-fuelwood.

In the case of metropolitan Hyderabad, (geetha MJTG) lpg threshold is the

6th income group (Rs.550 per capita per month) and the place of fuelwood is

marginal, but kerosene use declines from the seventh income group or Rs.

650 per capita per month. The evident use of LPG in the income groups below

this threshold, is on account in both metropolitan Hyderabad and in other size

classes is on account of the deepam scheme and continued subsidy support

to target groups and ease out policy to other low income households,

despite world bank directions to withdraw. The economic burden incurred

through this stand is amply compensated by the man-hours gained through

declining burden of disease in clean fuel user households. Although a

scientific account of the man hours is not available, it emanates from a

logical deduction.

The implications of urbanisation in terms of population increases and lifestyle

changes impact the energy consumption patterns in all developing countries,

because of the entailed fuel supply and accessibility imbalances.

A.P.: Percent Population by Size Class

of Settlements-1981

0

20

40

60

80

100

1 2 3 4 5 6Size C lass of Sett lement

No.settle

%pop

A.P.:Percent Population by Size Class

of Settlements -1991

0

20

40

60

80

100

1 2 3 4 5 6

Size Cl ass of Settlement

No.settle

%pop

A.P.:Percent Population by Size Class

ofSettlements -2001

0

20

40

60

80

1 2 3 4 5 6

Size Cl ass of Settlements

Series2

Series1

With the number of households in progressively larger settlements escalating

- expected to reach 70 percent by around 2030, the demand for commercial

fuels is expected to increase rapidly. Some studies identify low household

incomes, locational disadvantages and high delivery thresholds as variables

defining the accessibility and availability limitations. The inclination in most

rural - and low-income urban households is therefore would be towards

traditional and solid fuel use.

Conclusion:

References:

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in Small

and Medium Towns, in Review Projector(India) Vol.7 No.1,

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