‘The More Power You Consume the More a Unit will Cost,’ Kenya Power’s New Charging System

Kenya Power Company has introduced a categorization in its domestic power usage that is likely to trigger an increase in monthly electricity charges.

Domestic electricity users will now be categorized into two tariffs; Domestic Lifeline, who will buy one unit for 10 shillings and Domestic Ordinary who will buy the same one unit for 15 shillings.

In a text message sent to consumers informing them of the changes, the power company informed that the consumers would be classified depending on their monthly usage.

The Lifeline category will comprise of those that consume less than 100 units per month in an average of three months, while Domestic Ordinary will be of those that consume more than 100 units for the same period.

“Dear customer, as per the tariff structure, your last three months’ average consumption was above 100 units. You have been moved to domestic ordinary tariff band,” the text message sent to a number of users read.

The new changes will affect the Kenyan household budgets since people will either move to the expensive or cheaper tariff depending on their average power usage as confirmed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Director-General Pavel Oimeke.

“The movement is meant to be either way; a few to lower band and a few to a higher band,” Oimeke said.

The changes are in line with a Gazette notice categorizing electricity users into two categories “SC1” and “SC2” whose automatic classification would depend on a three-month average.

The changes were implemented on Wednesday, 6th February, and will make it possible for the power company to reviews its prices without necessarily involving the ERC as before.

Charles Keter, the Energy Cabinet Secretary has argued that the charge had not been reviewed upwards with the introduction of the new tariffs.

“It is automatic even if no SMSs were sent. You just get classified according to your consumption,” he remarked.

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