Kenya Power revives talks with ERC for tariff hike

Kenya Power says it is still in talks with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to have its power tariffs raised.

The talks come at a time the energy regulator appears unwilling to hike energy costs in line with the government’s position of providing electricity at affordable prices to consumers.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Kenya Power Communications Manager Johnston Turana said ERC has not rejected its bid and was still reviewing its application.

Kenya Power is currently signing numerous power purchase agreements with power producers, raising its operational costs.

“The current tariffs of course expire by the end of this month and one of the request for our reviewing  tariff is the last tariffs were implemented when we had a different generation capacity right now there is in fact new generations coming on board and so they have to be paid for from the tariff,”  Mr Turana said.

Some of the projects that are aimed at increasing generation include the signing of a power purchase agreement that saw Kenya Power purchasing 100MW from Kipeto Energy Limited which is a wind power project in Kajiado County. KenGen has also injected an additional 380MW to the grid which Kenya power buys and distributes to consumers.

Electricity consumers pay a fixed charge of Sh150 while those consuming between 51-1,500 units are charged Sh12.75 per unit. Low end consumers of less than 50 units are cushioned paying Sh2.50 per unit.

By Beatrice Eghwa