Kenyans set for lower December power bills

Kenyans are expected to see some much needed relief in their December billings for power consumption as the government moves to cut reliance on expensive thermal sources by more than half.

The anticipated relief is mirrored in the fall of monthly adjusted fuel cost charges (FCC) which fell to an eight month low of Ksh.2.65 per unit of consumed power in the last week’s review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA)

The downward adjustment is closely attributable to the State’s reduced reliance on thermal sources for electricity generation to mainly signify the dropping of diesel generators in power production.

The reduced reliance of thermal sources in recent months sits along the extended rainfall season which has served to lift power generation via the less expensive hydro sources.

As such, dams such as Kaimbere which generate hydro-power remain filled to the brink assuring of the ample capacity for the cheap sourcing of power.

The bounce-back of hydros as a source of power has seen the re-calibration of Kenya’s energy mix to see it tilt more towards renewable sources in geothermal, solar and wind.

According to EPRA’s disclosures at the end of November, geothermal power sourcing still leads the way with a 49 percent contribution to the energy mix while hydro has risen from the slump witnessed at the start of the year as its contribution levels up to 30.4 percent.

Thermal sources have meanwhile declined to 6.3 percent from 14 percent at the end of 2018 with wind picking to a double digit score of 11.6 percent.

Investments into source diversification have meanwhile sat at the center of the improved mix of electricity sourcing with the government having recently on boarded the 310 megawatt (MW) Lake Turkana Wind Farm (LTWP) and the 50MW Garissa solar plant.

The significant investments in wind and solar has seen the total effective capacity increase by 16.5 percent to 2637.8MW at the end of 2018.

Kenyan’s investment in sustainable energy has seen the country break into the top five global ranking of clean energy as listed on BloombergNEF (BNEF) latest Climate Scope report with an estimated Ksh.140 billion having been sunk into clean energy sources in the last year alone.