This archive report was first published on 21 August 2020.
Kenya Power to Recover Additional Losses from Consumers ¶
On August 21, 2020, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) reviewed consumer tariffs and allowed Kenya Power to recover system losses equivalent to 19.9 per cent of power it buys from generators from users, up from 14.9 per cent.
This move will increase consumer retail prices by Sh0.20 per kilowatt hours (kWh), resulting in an additional Sh1.77 billion annual payment to the utility firm based on the 8.84 billion kWh that homes and businesses consumed last year.
Consumers last year paid an estimated Sh4.24 billion on system losses at the earlier level of 14.9 per cent, meaning that the additional charges will push the burden to Sh6 billion.
Kenya Power's latest annual report puts the power losses at 20.5 per cent for the year to June 2018, translating to an annual loss of about Sh3.06 billion, which is more than 10 times the Sh262 million profit Kenya Power returned in the year to June 2019.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) placed the losses at 23 per cent for the year to December, and well above the global benchmark of about 15 per cent.
Kenya Power has issued its third profit warning in a row, citing reduced electricity consumption due to coronavirus control measures and rising cost of buying wholesale power from firms like KenGen.
