THE cost of electricity has gone down despite ordinary customers failing to notice the different, Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo said yesterday.
Chumo said reduction in fuel prices has seen the cost of electricity per kilowatts reduce by almost 60 per cent.
He said the fuel cost charge, which usually escalates electricity prices, has reduced from Sh7.32 per kilowatts hour per unit to less than Sh3, bringing down the total cost of electricity.
“Numbers don’t lie unless you are not paying your bills,” Chumo said.
He said, however, the reduction might not be felt by small-scale consumers, but large scale consumers and the industrial sector have felt the difference.
“A company like Bamburi cement which pays us Sh200 million per month must have felt the difference," Chumo said.
He spoke in Tudor, Mombasa, when KPLC launched a Sh35 million slum electricity project aimed at connecting residents of informal settlements to the national grid.
Chumo was responding to concerns by Mombasa residents who feel the electricity burden in the country is still high.
He said KPLC is committed to providing affordable, safe and reliable power to all Kenyans.
Chumo said power outages have also reduced across the country following the Boresha Umeme rehabilitation project, which also targets to improve supply in industrial areas.
The project has seen KPLC upgrade power supply systems across the country.
Chumo said constant electricity supply will improve with the planned construction of 29 new sub-stations at a cost of Sh9 billion, to be completed by June.
“Tenders for the new sub-stations are already out. Completion of the projects will reduce time spent patrolling power lines to address faults," he said.
Chumo said other services such as payment of electricity bills will be made easier, as the companies will introduce e-billing and expand the mobile banking payment systems to replace the paper billing.
Kenyans and investors are still banking on the government’s promise to reduce the cost of electricity.
Last year, Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said the cost of power will be cut by 37 per cent for industrial users and 47 per cent for domestic users once a number of energy projects are complete. He said this may be done within two and a half years.