Kenya Power seeks partners to help shave system, commercial losses

Utility company Kenya Power is seeking technology partners to help it trim system and commercial losses.

The firm has put out an expression of interest (EOI) for innovation technology partners to pilot solutions meant to curb the highlighted losses.

“The steep rise in system losses attributed to the rapidly expanding network and increased pilferage have been a major threat to the sustainable growth of the company,” Kenya Power said in a notice on Tuesday.

“The company is also experiencing rising customer complaints on billing and service quality. The combination of these pressures require the company to adopt business innovation to better position itself to serve its customers, cut costs and sustainably grow its revenues.”

The technological solutions sought are expected to address various business challenges currently experienced within commercial services, network management, customer services and customer payments.

The onboarding of the solutions is tipped to reap further dividends for Kenya Power including the reduction of operational expenditure, improved network status reporting, digitization of the network and revenue diversification.

The process is part of a wider move to reform the operations of the utility company which has also seen Kenya Power enter into negotiations with independent power producers (IPPs) on power purchase contracts.

In six months to December 2021, Kenya Power marked a 2.33 per cent improvement in system efficiency which stood at 77.13 per cent as it raised revenues from electricity sales by 21.1 per cent to Ksh.83.6 billion.

Kenya Power saw its half year profit rise to Ksh.3.8 billion from Ksh.138 million on rising revenues and easing operational costs.

During the period, the utility firm collected Ksh.900 million in overdue consumer debt.