Kenya Power Losing Big in Power Losses

There has been an increase in the loss of power by over 100 in the month of September and October. This occurs due to cases of vandalism, weak distribution network as well as non-payment of bills by customers.

This is according to the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) which shows that 126.19 million units of electricity were lost in October compared to 46.32 million units witnessed during the previous month.

However the Kenya Power data shows a more huge loss was incurred. The company bought 828.5 million units in October yet only 654 million were sold.

Statistics show that annual power losses stand at 17.52 percent. Records from Kenya Power on electricity losses show that commercial losses are leading with 6.9 percent followed by transmission losses which average 6.5 percent and distribution losses at 4.5 per cent.

Last week Kenya power boss Ben Chumo announced that the company will spend 10 billion shillings in the current financial year to strengthen its network to curb the losses incurred.

Speaking during a ceremony where he awarded 11 firms contracts to roll out the Last Mile Connectivity project Chumo said that the company is working towards reducing the losses to a single percentage digit.

Kenya Power Company had earlier on created a special unit of five managers tasked to deal with the ghost of power losses by working with existing departments in a bid to save scores of money lost in revenue collection.

Article by Shillah Mwadosho.