Erratic power supply costs Kenyan economy billions of shillings

The current erratic power supply is losing the country billions of shillings further battering an economy already suffering the adverse effects of food insecurity, political instability and a global recession.

The current drought has drastically reduced the country’s capacity to generate hydroelectric power, causing a supplier gap of 146 megawatts that the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) is seeking to manage through harnessing thermal energy and implementing a power rationing schedule.

“The increase in thermal component in the electricity supply mix has raised industrial and household bills by up to 100 per cent,” Mr Stephen Karekezi, the Executive Director of Energy, Environment and Development Network for Africa’s (AFREPREN), said at an experts round table on the energy crisis held in Nairobi on Thursday.

Renewable energy
A study conducted by AFREPREN on the impact of the drought experienced between 1999 and 2002 which reduced the country’s hydroelectric power generation capacity by up to 25 per cent estimated that the increase in expenditure during the switch to thermal generators at 1.45 per cent of the country’s total wealth.

The cost of installing renewable energy capacity is estimated at $1.5 million per megawatt.

“At a GDP size of $29.5 billion, the estimated loss during the [drought of 1999 to 2002] was $442 million, which if [it had been] invested in the renewable energy would have built almost three times the installed emergency power capacity,” said Mr Karekezi.

Kenyan industry is already crying foul over the KPLC’s load management programme.

According to a statement released by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) on Wednesday, up to 25 industrial enterprises located in areas that are experiencing three-times-a-week power rationing have been forced to scale down their operations by more than a half.

KAM says its members in Ruaraka and Kasarani, Jogoo Road, Lunga Lunga, Likoni Road and Mombasa Road in Nairobi as well as Athi River township and Mombasa’s Changamwe area, Njoro, Webuye, Kisumu and Red Hill in Limuru are the most affected by the power rationing programme.

“Our own internal surveys show that these industries are experiencing losses of between 12 and 36 hours of productive work on a weekly basis due to power rationing,” the business lobby group said in a statement.

Mr Isaac Kiva, a senior energy ministry official in charge of renewable energy said the government expects electricity supply to become more stable once more players step in to take advantage of the current incentives being offered to the private sector to invest in energy generation projects.

Sugar companies
“The government has also planned many activities for the coming months such as a soft loans to those who intend to invest in green energy, a green energy envelope and a donor conference. These are all calculated to court independent power producers,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Kenya Meteorological department issued the its weather forecast for October to December predicting heavy rainfall that could fill dams and restore hydroelectric power generation to its installed capacity of 57 per cent of the country’s power generation mix.

Energy experts want the government to speed up the process of merging and privatising sugar factories to ensure that each independent factory has a co-generation capacity to add to the national grid.

“If all the sugar companies went the Mumias way from the very beginning, we would not be experiencing the current power rationing now,” said Mr Karekezi.