Energy status and practices for efficient energy management to reduce power interruptions: a case study on Tulkarm district in Palestine

ABSTRACT

Tulkarm is a Palestinian city with a rapidly growing population; thus, energy consumption sometimes becomes an issue. This study presents the reality of energy consumption, climate, and weather in Palestine and the reasons that make Tulkarm a large area of energy resources. Furthermore, several solutions to overcome the issue on energy consumption are discussed. The first solution, i.e. scheduling the delivery of energy to neighbourhoods on the basis of relevance, has already been adopted. The second solution is the use of diesel generators for a period in several locations across the town. The last and most effective solution is for households to use renewable energy. A short questionnaire was administered to evaluate the awareness of households about using electricity in their daily life. Results from this questionnaire reveal that the awareness of households who use electricity is the main solution to overcome the problem of repetitive power interruptions.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy
• power interruption
• Tulkarm
• practices
• renewable energy

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie and the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education for funding this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Wael A. Salah http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6091-2410

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie and the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education.