Kenya Power unveils Ksh.800M plan to address outages

Kenya Power has launched a Ksh. 800million electricity network management programme aimed at maintaining the electricity network countrywide for improved quality of power supply to its customers.

Speaking in Karatina, Nyeri County on Friday, Kenya Power MD and CEO Bernard Ngugi said the company is carrying out a comprehensive audit of the country’s electricity network under the programme to identify issues requiring corrective action and reinforcing the grid to enhance its robustness.

“Good service delivery is anchored on effective management of both planned and unplanned power outages. We are committed to ensuring that our customers enjoy quality service by minimising disruptions during planned maintenance programmes and responding speedily to restore normalcy during unplanned outage situations,” said Mr. Ngugi.

The programme entails carrying out proactive maintenance focusing on major repair works on the network including undertaking transformer maintenance and carrying out reinforcement works to ensure continuous supply.

The Company’s immediate focus, according to Mr. Ngugi, is to clear the backlog of faulty transformer replacements that has been caused by disruption in supply chain owing to trade restrictions set up to prevent the spread of the corona virus pandemic.

“Part of the work entails the installation and earthing of surge diverters on terminal transformers (those at the end of the distribution line) to protect them from faults resulting from lightning strikes. It will also encompass the installation of fuses to safeguard transformers from failure, as well as re-sagging of conductors, “he added.

The Company will partner with the government-led Kazi Mtaani Youth Employment Programme to carry out the maintenance of wayleaves pruning and cutting of trees and vegetation along the electricity network.

“As a Company, we are alive to the important role that electricity plays in powering the economy and improving people’s lives. As such, we are committed to ensuring that our customers enjoy reliable and quality power because we are in the business of selling power, not outages,” said Mr. Ngugi.

Mr. Ngugi said the Company will also intensify the use of Live–Line technology for planned maintenance programmes for enhanced customer satisfaction.

The Live–Line technology enables Kenya Power technical teams to carry out the network maintenance without switching off power supply.

“Since we scaled-up adoption of the technology in 2018, planned interruptions, have reduced by 40%. We have managed to avoid a total of 2,154 shutdowns over the period with positive impact to the Company and the economy at large,” he added.

Mr. Ngugi revealed that the Company has adopted a new county structure for effective management operations and enhanced responsiveness to customers in line with its new business growth strategy.