Investigating households and productive use electricity demand patterns in rural Mozambique

Paper in proceeding, 2026

Knowledge of electricity demand is key for power supply planning. Most research on electricity demand in sub-Saharan Africa focus on households (HHs) and pay less attention to productive use (PU) sectors. There is also more focus on aggregated demand than demand patterns. Thus, this study investigates electricity demand and its patterns in HHs and PUs in a rural grid-connected region of Mozambique. A bottom-up approach and survey data are used to estimate load profiles. Results show sharply different demand behaviors between HHs and PUs. In HHs, two demand peaks are observed, in the morning and at night, while there is a flat trend during the day. In contrast, demand for PU varies during the day, with a maximum at night. HH peaks occur at the time when residents wake up to prepare for work and housework, while the higher peaks in PU are mainly due to the use of air conditioning and fans in hotels. While the average demand per end-user was higher in PU than in HHs, the aggregated demand is found to be driven by HHs. The findings have implications for infrastructure investments and the allocation of resources to ensure a reliable and sustainable energy supply in rural areas of developing countries.