Kenya Power to Invest $600 Million to Stem Losses, Secure Distribution

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Kenya Power (KP), the national power utility and distribution company, each year loses about 18.6% of the power it generates. The company now plans to invest $600 million to curb the loss, expand distribution capacity during the next three years, and provide dedicated lines to industrial and commercial centers.

"Our business is to support economic growth, and we plan mega-investments in the network to make it robust to support manufacturers, increase their productivity and expand capacity," said KP Managing Director Ben Chumo. "This will create more employment and wealth."

The company has an ongoing initiative to strengthen the existing distribution network by addressing inherent weaknesses. KP also recently announced a program to inspect more than 2 million installations in an attempt to reduce revenue loss from the current 5% to about 1%.

Tampering with and by-passing meters often has led to incorrect bills being submitted to customers, and may lead to electrical accidents, according to Thagichu Kiiru, the installation and fraud control deputy manager for commercial services.

For more information, see April 22, 2013, article - Kenya Plans $1.2 Billion Power Supply Upgrade as Outages Worsen.

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