Analysis of the pattern of energy consumptions and its impact on urban environmental sustainability in Jordan: Amman City as a case study

• Main Authors: Rami Nabil Dar-Mousa, Zeyad Makhamreh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-05-01
• Series: Energy, Sustainability and Society
• Subjects: Energy consumption; Sustainability; Amman; Urban pattern; GIS
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13705-019-0197-0

Abstract Background The energy sector plays an important role in the economic growth in Jordan due to the fact that Jordan imports around 97% of its needs from primary energy. The purpose of this study is to explore the pattern of electricity consumption and energy loss to highlight the strengths and weakness of energy efficiency in the context of the urban sustainability of Amman City in Jordan. Methods The design of sustainable urban development is based on the urban interdependencies approach, which incorporates the stakeholders to identify and pursue synergies between multiple sectors. This approach includes the identification of the functional sectors, which are related to institutional and behavioral levels in the society, raising the level of institutional performance and improving the quality of urban services. The spatial statistical analysis approach and GIS applied to analyze the consumption pattern of electrical power in the study area. Results and conclusion There was a considerable increase in the peak domestic consumption, as the peak load reached 3320 MW in 2017 with an annual increment rate of 4.9%. Regarding energy efficiency, the value of total electrical energy losses reached 13% in 2017; around 90% of this loss occurred in the electrical distribution stage. Geographical distribution of the household electrical power shows that the east and middle parts of Amman have low consumption levels compared to the west residential parts. The energy consumption pattern has an inverse relation with the population distribution, family size, and building characteristics in the city. This is clearly identified by addressing the downtown region that has the lowest energy consumption and the highest-density population, while the western part has the highest energy consumption and low-population density. These variations can be referred to as differences in social and economic behaviors of inhabitants in both high-density and low-density population areas. This analysis reflects the influence of several factors that should be taken into account in energy sustainability strategies. Energy consumption is influenced by the characteristics of households which include building size, household income, total energy cost, and building characteristics (e.g., building design, age, location, and using thermal insulation system for buildings).