Editorial Team
Kenyan households and business have been reeling under the weight of high power bills punctuated by reports of scandals dogging the electricity supplier.
To attain the Big Four agenda’s objectives, the government must bring down the cost of electricity. Without lower tariffs, the manufacturing pillar of the Big Four agenda is bound to suffer.
High electricity costs have a knock-on effect on every other sector and contribute to the increase in the cost of living. It, therefore, behoves stakeholders to ensure only the cheapest sources of electricity find their way to households and manufacturing plants.
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The country has invested massively in cheaper renewable energy. However, despite increased investments, the cost of power has hardly been reviewed.
As a matter of fact, barely a week after the official commissioning of Lake Turkana Wind Power in Marsabit, which is Africa’s largest wind farm pumping 310MW mega into the national grid, expectations are rife tariffs will go down. It has emerged that Kenya Power Company could buy electricity at half price if consumption increased.
By purchasing up to 1.68 billion units – measured in kilowatt-hours (KWh) of electricity – Kenya Power is expected to get a 50 per cent price discount on electricity bought from Lake Turkana Wind Power.
To bring down the cost of electricity, the government must make a decision on the decommissioning of expensive thermal plants. Last year, the Energy Cabinet secretary said the expensive long-term thermal contracts will be terminated.
High power costs were felt during the severe drought of the 2016/17 financial year which saw independent power producers (IPPs) increase their electricity sales to Kenya Power in excess of 60 per cent, compared with 58 per cent the previous year.
Kenya Power paid Sh22 billion to IPPs that use diesel to generate electricity, up from Sh12 billion the previous year, this even as IPPs are entitled to a fixed-capacity charge of Sh4 per kilowatt-hour whether they are generating power or lying idle.
This cost was passed on to power consumers as an expense charge, fluctuations depend on the amount of fuel used in power production. It is worth noting that the fuel cost component accounted for as much as 40 per cent of what consumers pay for electricity.
The campaign to bring down the cost of power should be a concerted effort by relevant State agencies, which should push for increased uptake of power sources so that tariffs can reduce.
