- Under the new tariff, Kenyans consuming below 30 kilowatts(kWh) per month had their electricity bills go up by 22.2 per cent.
- Small businesses consuming less than 30 units a month are now paying Sh12.22, up from Sh10 per unit.
Image: FILE
Thew government says it is determined to cut down the high cost of power to tame inflation which hit the eight per cent mark in May.
Energy and Petroleum CS Davis Chirchir said power cost is a crucial driver of inflation, and efforts to reduce the current costs are crucial in easing the burden on households.
“Ensuring affordable power to consumers will see the demand prop up, driving up the need for more investment in power production, which would translate to constant affordable prices in future,” Chirchir said.
He said this will also create job openings to the many graduates joining the job market every year.
Chirchir spoke during a media briefing on sustainability of the country’s electricity supply on Monday.
Consumers are currently grappling with the increased costs of power following the revised tariff approval by Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority that took effect on April 1.
Under the new tariff, Kenyans using below 30 kilowatts (kWh) per month had their electricity bills go up by 22.2 per cent.
This moved the cost for this category, domestic lifeline, from Sh10 per a unit to Sh12.22 per unit.
The other category, domestic ordinary 1, with consumers between 31-100 kWh per month, had their costs go up by 63 per cent from Sh10 per unit to Sh16.3.
EPRA also grouped another category, domestic ordinary 2, whose consumers spend over 100 units a month. Their cost went up from Sh15.8 per a unit to Sh20.97, representing an increase of 51.7 per cent.
Small businesses consuming less than 30 units a month are now paying Sh12.22, up from Sh10 per unit.
However, those consuming more than 30 units but less than 100 units per month are now paying Sh16.4 per unit from Sh10.
The other category is for small businesses, which consume more than 100 units per month are now paying Sh20.18, up from Sh15.6.
Chirchir noted that investment in the power sector has in the past years reduced, on the back of increased competition from other sectors such as health and transport.
“We need to create an environment that will drive more investments into the sector and see the country’s production capacity up to about 23,000MW by 2030,” he said.
KenGen’s acting managing director Abraham Serem said the country’s current power generation is still low.
“The peak demand against the production capacity scenario is extremely uncomfortable,” Serem said.
He added that Kenya's energy sector is losing so much on system and transmission losses at about 23 per cent but said the the country is targeting to bring this down to 15 percent.