State's Sh7b plan to increase LPG usage

The government is banking on public institutions to increase the amount of cooking gas consumed in the country to 10kg per capita in line with the National Liquified Petroleum Gas Enhancement Project.

The current consumption of cooking gas, or LPG, is 6.59kg per capita annually as detailed in the recently launched Ministry of Energy and Petroleum 2023-2027 strategic plan.

In the plan, the ministry seeks to move this figure to 10kg with a key factor being having 50 per cent of public learning institutions use LPG by 2027, from a baseline of eight per cent in 2023.

For households, the target is 100 per cent by 2027 from 40 per cent in 2023 in adoption of clean cooking solutions.

The government is expected to spend Sh5.04 billion to procure and distribute LPG cylinders and accessories to low-income households. The target is 500,000 households.

This will be undertaken by the National Oil Corporation (Nock) and the State Department for Petroleum.

An additional Sh2 billion will also be spent to distribute 300,000 LPG cylinders as part of gender mainstreaming programmes. This will be undertaken by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.

In the previous plan ended 2022, the plan discloses that 35,000 6kg LPG cylinders complete with burners and grills were distributed on a pilot basis.

The document notes that the National Liquefied Petroleum Gas Enhancement Project (Mwananchi LPG Project) launched in 2018 aimed at promoting use of clean energy by increasing LPG per capita consumption from 2 kg to 15 kg.

"During the period under review, the Ministry procured 319,241 6-kg LPG cylinders fitted with camping valves, 72,000 2-burner cook stoves, 60,000 1.5m long flex rubber hose pipes for distribution to low-income households.

"A total of 35,000 6-kg LPG cylinders complete with burners and grills were distributed in Kajiado and Machakos counties on pilot basis," the plan states.

The strategic plan targets to transition 37,500 public institutions to clean cooking solutions by 2027. Sh8.9 billion has been budgeted for this.

The plan also seeks to provide 3,970 public learning institutions with the relevant infrastructure to adopt clean cooking gas. This will cost Sh13.4 billion.

"Facilitate the transition of public institutions from using firewood and charcoal for cooking to cleaner forms of cooking solutions," the strategy says in part.

There are also plans to construct biogas plants in public secondary schools and a similar pilot programme on households.

At least 347 of such plants are to be constructed within the five-year period at a cost of Sh300 million.

This will be overseen by the State Department for Energy and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation.

The ministry will build 2,000 biogas demonstration units during the period. The target as indicated in the plan is to install demonstration biogas plants in 47 households at a cost of Sh312 million.