Kenya Power electricity losses rise above allowed limit

Kenya Power continues to make electricity losses above the limit set by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA).

The increasing system losses arising from illegal connections and inefficient transmission systems are expected to eat into the utility’s revenues.

Kenya Power made system losses of 25% in December last year; in the last 6 months of 2023, these losses averaged at 23.2%, despite the company’s goal to cut the losses to at least 20.93%.

EPRA allows Kenya Power to pass on to consumers 18.5% of these losses; this translates to billions of shillings every year.

“‘In terms of what is specific to transmission, the losses are somewhere between 4.5 to 5%. Then now the balance is distribution and commercial,” said Kenya Power CEO Dr. Eng. Joseph Siror.

System losses emanate from technical and commercial losses. Technical losses are those occasioned by an inefficient or dilapidated distribution infrastructure.

Commercial losses arise from power theft. Kenya Power says it is taking steps to reduce the losses.

“Efficiency of the system is one of the key areas that has been quite a challenge for the business. We’ve actually studied this and seen that quite a bit of this is actually due to the technical dynamics of the system,” said Stephen Vikiru, General Manger of Finance, Kenya Power,

“But we are working to see how we can specifically isolate areas that are high loss generating, and see the interventions that can be put into that to reduce the system losses.”

These losses are occurring at a time when EPRA has increased retail tariffs by about 20% to bolster Kenya Power's revenue, to facilitate the overhaul of its aging infrastructure.