Heavy commercial power consumers in Kenya will be smiling from ear to ear come end month as they look at their end-month billing.
This is because manufactures and heavy power consumers will start getting charged less in the power bills after the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) introduced a new class of tariffs.
As per the new tariffs, which was gazetted by the regulator on Friday, commercial and industrial consumers metered by Kenya Power at 220,000 volts per post-paid billing period will pay Ksh.7.99 for every unit consumed.
The manufactures will further be charged Ksh.3.99 less for each unit of power consumed outside peak hours with the demand charge per kilovolt amperes (kVA) being set at Ksh.200.
This latest development will be music to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) which has been especially vocal in calling for cheaper power warning out of reach power will harm the competitiveness of Kenyan goods against those produced by regional peers.
According to the industry lobby only a single digit tariff per kilowatt hour (Kwh) of consumed power can deliver the desired sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 15% by the year 2022.
On July 1, 2018, Kenya finally implemented the 2006 Energy Act which among other things sought to address the issue of available but expensive electricity. EPRA then added a class above the 132,000 volts metered customers much to the relief of heavy commercial power consumers.
This newly scheduled tariff is part of the 2006 Energy Act amendments.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has also come with a new formula where power plant developers will only be paid for the electricity they inject into the national grid.
EPRA says the “Take and Pay” model of power purchase agreement (PPA) between Kenya Power and investors, is much better than the “take or pay”model which has been the norm.
The aim is to ease Kenya Power’s payment obligations since the current take-or-pay model has for long forced the utility firm to pay private investors for power not evacuated amid an oversupply in the country.
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