New tough rules to weed out rogue power suppliers

Kenya Power personnel replace a transformer in Nyeri on May 19. 2016. [PHOTO:KIBATA KIHU/STANDARD]

Suppliers seeking a piece of Kenya Power’s contracts will have to carry a six-year risk of replacing them as the power distributor seeks to insure itself from faulty equipment.

Kenya Power yesterday announced that suppliers will give a six-year guarantee for their equipment upon delivery and five years once installed, up from 12 months required under current tender documents.

“This will help reduce transformer failure rates and compel manufacturers to take responsibility for any manufacturing defects,” Kenya Power’s Managing Director Ben Chumo said in a statement to newsrooms.

Kenya Power has previously blamed regular blackouts especially in the western region on faulty equipment. Last year, the power distribution firm cancelled a purchase agreement for the equipment supplied by Muwa Trading Company over 100 faulty pieces that threw the western Kenya in darkness as well as delay in delivery of other pieces. The matter worth $4.08 million (Sh400 million) supply contract is still in court.

Suppliers will also be required to provide a list of critical raw materials and their sources in order to ease traceability of parts and control the quality of the equipment. The power distributor has also struck off use of copper wire and will now insist only bids that will use aluminum for primary and secondary connection.

NEW SPECIFICATIONS

Initially companies could use either of the two but Kenya Power management says the copper wires attract vandals seeking to sell them in the black market. Chumo said the new specifications are envisioned to increase durability of transformers while making them less attractive to vandals.

“Under the new guidelines, transformers will contain aluminum windings, as opposed to copper which is attractive to vandals. The requirement is expected to control the quality of transformers while at the same time prevent vandalism,” he said.

Last year, 222 transformers were vandalised resulting into a loss of Sh86 million to the company compared to 268 transformers vandalised in the previous year, costing Sh100 million. From July to date, 33 transformers have been vandalised, compared to 50 in the same period last year.

Kenya Power says vandalism has been on a decline, helped by constant surveillance on the network, enhanced penalties and jail terms for vandals to clamp down on the vice.

The company even started mounting the transformers above live wire as well as replacing the oil in transformers with gas to bar vandals from accessing the fuel.

There are about 59,000 transformers in the distribution network at the moment. This figure is expected to rise significantly with the implementation of the Last Mile Connectivity Project, part of which involves increasing the number of transformers.