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ERC Removes Monthly Fixed Charges In New Power Rates, Increases Cost Per Unit

by Francis Muli June 30, 2018, 2:20 PM 1.7k Views 1 Comment

ERC Director Acting General Pavel Oimeke

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has proposed removal of the monthly fixed charges for all consumer categories and harmonize them in the energy charge. However, this will see domestic consumers using 0-15Kilowatt Hours (kWh) part with Ksh12 for one kWh instead of the existing Ksh2.5 for the same.

In the new power scheme proposed to start working on July 1, ERC suggests development of a new lifeline category of consumers with consumption up to 15 units (mentioned above), which accounts for more than 3.6 million customers.

Another category for domestic consumers, Domestic Ordinary, consuming between 16-50 kWh will part with with Ksh16.50 for one kWh.

The new tariff will also split of the small commercial category into two based on consumption: Small Commercial (SC) 0-1,000 kWh and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) 1,001-15,000 kWh.

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SC consumers will pay Ksh16 per kWh while SMEs will cash out Ksh15.50 for the same, both without a monthly fixed charge.

“This tariff review seeks to ensure the financial sustainability of the electricity sector
stakeholders while at the same time ensuring supply of reliable and competitively priced
energy,” states ERC.

For Commercial and industrial consumers using more than 15,000 kWh, they will part with Ksh11.55 instead of the existing Ksh9.20. In addition, they will pay Ksh800 demand fees for one Kilo-volt ampere (kVA).The fixed charge of Ksh2,500 has been scrapped off.

Their counterparts without limits will pay Ksh10.50 instead of Ksh8, plus Ksh520 per kVA. Similarly, the monthly fixed charge of Ksh4,500 has been done away with.

Below is the table of the full list of proposed new charges.

The customer connectivity drive has seen the number of total customers connected grow from 2,264,508 in March 2013 to 6,526,987 customers as at end of March 2018 meaning electricity access rate of the households is 72.55%.

Of these, domestic consumers constitute of 6.2 million connections while SC and SMEs combined are 262,565.

The installed generation capacity in Kenya according to ERC stands at 2,351MW while the total effective capacity is 2,275.4MW. The current national interconnected system peak demand is 1,802MW, recorded on 6th June 2018.

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