Kenya Power offices.[Photo/Nation]
The importation of electricity has been attributed to the high power charges.
The drought last year led to the increased imports from Uganda and Ethiopia. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows the country imported 214 million kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity in the 11 months to November 2017.
This was 193 per cent more than the 73 million units that Kenya imported over a similar period in 2016. Uganda accounted for the bulk of the imports at 98 per cent. While Uganda sources more than 90 per cent of its power from hydro sources, 10 per cent is from thermal generators and the principal of importing and exporting power in the region shows that importers get the most expensive electricity that the exporting country produces.
“When importing from Uganda, they will give Kenya the most expensive, which is reciprocated when they import from us. Their consumers have a priority whereby hey get the cheapest while the neighbours get the most expensive,” said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in a statement.
“There is an energy exchange agreement between Kenya and Uganda whereby there are considerations that one country will have to go the extra mile to give the neighbour the power it needs and, in turn, the neighbour has to take the most expensive electricity.”
The ERC shows that the power that Kenya gets from Uganda is priced at a cross-border tariff of about Sh23 per unit. Importing 214 million units would mean the country paid Ugandan power agencies over Sh4.9 billion for power imported over the 11 months.
The power import tariff of Sh23 per unit of electricity is in comparison to Sh3 that Kenyans pay for hydroelectricity and Sh7 for geothermal power.