Kenya Power to spend Sh9 billion in improving grid, admits company

Kenya Power plans to spend Sh8.7 billion on new power distribution stations to improve electricity supply aimed at curbing chronic power shortages that companies say have discouraged investments.

The main electricity transmission company said in a statement yesterday that it plans to build 36 new sub-stations, with ten of them being put up in the Coast region. The Government has said it aims to boost power production capacity in East Africa’s biggest economy by an extra 5,000 megawatts (MW) to the existing 1,664 MW of generation capacity by 2017, to meet growing demand.

Kenya Power, which serves about 2.8 million customers out of a population of 40 million, relies heavily on renewable energy such as hydro power and geothermal gas for its electricity.

The company annual pre-tax profit grew by 55 per cent driven by higher tariffs, increased sales of electricity and reduced losses due to improvements in the power grid.

-Reuters