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The Energy Commission of Ghana has so far seized and destroyed about 23,000 imported refrigerators and freezers following the implementation of its Legislative Instrument (LI) 1932 (2008) in 2013.

Kofi Agyarko, acting Head of Energy Efficiency at the commission, who made this known, stated that the seizure of the 23,000 imported refrigerators and fridges has saved the country some 400gigawatts hours of energy, which is a third of Bui Dam’s 1200gigawatts energy supply in a year.

But for the passage of that law and the resoluteness of the Energy Commission to enforce it, he noted, the whole country by now would have been littered with imported used refrigerators.

He added that the erratic power supply that bedevilled the country could also not have been resolved if all those refrigerating appliances were in the system due to their high power consumption nature.

Agyarko was speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the introduction of certified refrigerating app to refrigerator importers.

The meeting was to explain the app to the importers and also to take their views on it going forward.

Agyarko explained that because the commission met the importers, who are their main stakeholders in its Refrigerator Efficiency Improvement Project, which was initiated with the objective to transform the refrigerating appliance market from one of old, inefficient used appliances, popularly called home use or second-hand appliances, discarded in Europe but imported into the country and sold to unsuspecting consumers.

The app, he noted, is to assist consumers to identify energy-efficient refrigerators and also help the Commission in weeding out substandard refrigerating appliances that are smuggled into the country.

The app was part of two smartphone applications – ‘Freezers Automatic Timer Switcher’ and ‘Refrigerator and Certified Electricians’ – launched two months ago by the commission.

The two apps sought to enable consumers of electricity and electrical appliances to save energy, access certified electrical wiring professionals, certified electrical wiring inspectors across the country, as well as to verify whether a refrigerator they intend to buy meets Ghana’s energy efficiency standards and has been labelled appropriately.