Private electricity firms pocket Sh24 billion

Expensive energy and power consumption concept. Coins in front of electricity meter

 

Private electricity companies pocketed Sh24 billion from consumers last year, new data shows.

This was because the country’s power distributor relied heavily on thermal-generated power to bridge a supply shortage.

According to data from the Economic Survey released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics last week, the State electricity producer, KenGen, made Sh15 billion after Kenya Power resorted to thermal generation sources on account of depressed rainfall.

“Hydro generation registered a significant drop of 29 per cent to 2,776.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) mainly due to prolonged drought in 2017,” said the statistics office in the report.

“In order to meet electricity demand, thermal generation increased significantly from 1,470 GWh in 2016 to 2,534 GWh in 2017.”

This saw electricity bills rise from the costly thermal power, almost doubling from Sh21 billion recorded in 2016 to Sh39 billion last year.

Some of the leading independent power producers include OrPower 4 Inc and Rabai Power, which in the last financial year supplied Kenya Power with 1,172GWh and 607GWh of electricity valued at Sh17 billion and Sh8.9 billion respectively.

Kenya Power was last week hard-pressed to explain the reason behind inflated electricity bills, with the utility company blaming failed rains for the increased use of the costly thermal power generation.