Kenya Power adds 641,000 customers in year to June

Kenya Power added 641,000 customers in the year to June, new data shows, pointing to improved revenue for the utility that recorded historic sales in July.

Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that Kenya Power had a record 8.91 million customers in June, up from 8.27 million in a similar month last year, reflecting the gains of an aggressive connection campaign aimed at boosting revenue.

The new connections in the year to June are, however, a drop from the 716,000 customers that the company realised the previous year.

Most of the new customers were connected through the Last Mile Connectivity Project that is being delivered by both Kenya Power and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (Rerec).

The Last Mile Project was started by the Jubilee administration in 2013 to accelerate electrification across the country and achieve the elusive universal electricity access with households paying Sh15,000 for connection.

It was designed to maximise Kenya Power’s 35,000 transformers, which existed across the country at the time, by connecting households to the underutilised transformers at a low cost, which would then be covered by the government and other development partners.

Kenya Power, which is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), is banking on higher electricity sales to boost its revenue.

Commercial and industrial customers generate about 68 per cent of the firm’s revenue from electricity sales.

The strategy seems to be bearing fruit, with electricity demand hitting a historic high of 2117.24 megawatts on July 26, signalling increased demand from households and businesses as the economy recovers.

The month also had a record high monthly consumption of electricity, which grew 5 per cent to hit 1126.76 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in July, underlining the strong growth in demand.

Higher revenues

Kenya Power is also eyeing a review of electricity tariffs in the second quarter of the current financial year to enable it to collect higher revenues to sustain its operations amid fresh efforts to cut its costs.

It will submit a new tariff application to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority between October and December even as the utility firm sought to climb out of a financial hole created by the January power price cut.