Electricity Consumption and Population Growth in South Africa: A Panel Approach

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between population growth and electricity consumption in South Africa for the period from 2002 to 2021 collected from StatsSA. The study utilises Seemingly Unrelated Regression model and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) causality tests to analyse the relationship between the variables. Empirical results revealed that there is a negative statistically significant relationship between population growth and electricity consumption in South Africa. The results further reveal one-way causality running from population growth to electricity consumption. The study recommends that the government and policy makers must implement policies aimed at increasing renewable electricity generation to match the gap between electricity demand and growing population thereby reducing constant loadshedding in South Africa.