Project lights up more Kenyan households but ...

Half of Kenyan households are still in the dark, although the number of those accessing electricity has slightly gone up in the last three years, a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) shows.

PwC in its A new Africa energy world: A more positive power sector outlook report released yesterday, said Kenya’s last mile project and other programmes have helped increase power connectivity from 35 per cent to 50 per cent in the last three years.

Kenya Power personnel working on a electricity line in Nyeri on September 20 2015, the company has initiated a programme of lighting up the streets so that majority especially in urban areas can performs some of their daytime activities even late at night. (PHOTO: KIBATA KIHU/STANDARD)

“Already, these programmes have led to increased connectivity from 35 per cent to 50 per cent within the last three years with plans to achieve 70 per cent connectivity by 2017 and 100 per cent connectivity by 2020,” said Tibor Almassy, a partner with PwC Kenya and a power sector and transactions specialist.

Kenya is trying to speed up expansion of electricity penetration across the country, particularly in rural areas, under the Last Mile Connectivity Project launched by the government in March.

The project aims to connect some 310,000 people living close to 35,000 Kenya Power transformers to the grid in the next two years, at a cost of around Sh15,000 per connection.

Kenya has been seeking to change the African narrative about the power sector by embarking on an ambitious project that will result in the addition of 5,000MW to the national grid by 2017 and 17,000 MW by 2030. This will be achieved largely through tapping into renewable energy sources.

Lead to over-supply

“It might seem a bit ambitious but the increase in megawatt capacity will happen. If Kenya’s industrialisation strategy is successful, Kenya will need this power. The Government’s industrialisation strategy is on track but the bottleneck to achieving all of the gains of industrialisation is the transport and logistics network,” said Kuria Muchiru, a partner with PwC Kenya’s Advisory practice.

He said the possibility of excess capacity is real. “We expect significant gains in productivity and efficiency, as well as reduced theft and losses related to ageing assets. These improvements coupled with increased power generation capacity could lead to over-supply, unless supply is adequately taken up by demand, particularly the power demands of industrialization,” added Mr Muchiru.

Mr Almassy said the potential to develop new sources of generation and reach under-served communities is immense. “Regional power generation and interconnection projects have the potential to play a significant role in delivering increased access to electricity to Kenyans and Kenyan industries. Ultimately, Kenya’s competitive power sector planning will help grow the country’s competitiveness across the region and contribute significantly to economic growth,” said Almassy.

The PwC report said Africa faces a huge electricity demand challenge. Installed power capacity is expected to rise from 90GW in 2012 to 380GW in 2040 in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the report said that even though power capacity is expected to increase four-fold in the next 25 years, 530 million people, primarily in rural communities, are expected to remain without power.

“The under-electrification of much of the continent is a constraint on growth. Only 39 per cent of the African population has access to electricity, compared to 70–90 per cent in other parts of the developing world,” said Almassy.