Access to power connectivity in Kenya Rises to 60%

1.25 Million New customers have been added to the national grid in the year ended 30th June 2016, bringing electricity access to 60 percent according to Ben Chumo, the managing director and chief executive officer of Kenya Power and Lightening Company.

In an Op-end in the Daily Nation, Chumo says since 2013, an additional 2.6 million households have been connected with electricity by Kenya Power, thus raising their customer base from 2,261,064 in March, 2013 to 4,890,373 in June, 2016, representing a growth of 116 percent. This has raised the country’s electricity access rate from 27 percent three years ago to 60 per cent by the end of June this year.

“I believe that the biggest achievement we have made in the last three years is consistently breaking barriers in efforts to connect Kenyans to the electrical grid,” he adds.

Chumo stated that in 2015, they connected a total of 1.25 million Kenyans to the grid, up from 843,000 in 2014.

In the ongoing Last Mile Connectivity Project, the company aims to achieve 70 percent connectivity by the end of 2017 and universal access by 2020. Besides styling up the lives of Kenyans, the company believes that provision of electricity will help spur economic growth at micro level even as we grow our company’s revenue.

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Apart from raising the number of households connected to electricity, the MD added that Kenya Power have also done a lot to improve the quality and reliability of power supply to our customers.  In the last three years, they have invested to modernize the network by constructing additional substations and power lines to reduce power outages and create capacity for growth. A total of 81 substations, both newly-constructed and upgraded, have been completed in various parts of the country since 2013.

Read: Effects of Nation-wide Blackouts on the Economy

They also initiated Boresha Umeme Programme which is a rapid-response initiative targeting our large power customer segment and essential service customers to improve quality by minimizing outages. The Boresha Umeme Programme has been implemented in more than 40 areas in different parts of the country including all major cities and towns, economic zones, high load growth areas and major residential areas.

As a result of these initiatives among others, the company has reduced power-supply-interruption incidence per 1,000 customers from 9.2 in 2014 to the current 6.4. From this, they have a renewed sense of urgency in effectively implementing projects to ensure that the country has adequate, reliable and quality electricity necessary for the country’s development.

Read: Can Utility Companies in Africa Deliver Quality Power?

Prior to the implementation of the government’s strategy to generate an additional 5,000 MW, the countries installed capacity stood at 1,765 MW as at June, 2013. Since then, the generation capacity has increased by 33 per cent to the current 2,341 MW as at end of June, 2016.