Kenya Power targets 1 million new connections this fiscal year

Kenya Power aims to connect one million new customers to the national grid in the 2014/ 15 financial year, representing a 36 per cent growth in its customer base.

Chief executive Ben Chumo said on Sunday that the firm had connected over 400,000 new customers in the last financial year, bringing the total number to over 2.8 million as of June.

"Kenya Power is working with various financial institutions to develop appropriate loan facilities to assist potential customers in paying for the new connection," Chumo said in Athi River, about 40km east of Nairobi.

He said the electricity distributor will build on last year’s success to accelerate the rate of connections which saw the company record 443,000 new customer connections up from 307,000 recorded the previous year.

Chumo made the remarks when he witnessed a Sh159 million power upgrade project aimed at stabilizing power supply to customers in Nairobi’s rapidly growing satellite towns, adding that the company will allocate adequate resources to maintain high rate of connectivity in the coming years.

Kenya is facing twin pressure of electricity connection and generation.

The interconnected installed capacity currently stands at 1,672 MW, including the 120 MW of the emergency capacity, according to Kenya Power.

The current national interconnected system peak demand is 1,330 MW.

But the country is banking on several power generation projects that are currently under implementation.

He said the new plan to connect more consumers is part of demand creation for the 5,000 MW additional capacity envisioned by the government and help attain 70 per cent electricity penetration by the year 2020 (up from the current 32 per cent).