Electricians who carry out installations for electric vehicles (EV) charging stations will be required to have a special licence if new regulations are approved.
The draft Energy (Electricity Supply and Installation Work) Regulations, 2022, propose to introduce a Class S3 licence for electricians for these spots. The regulations have been published by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) for public participation.
“(A Class S3 licence) shall entitle the holder to carry out electrical installation work for electric vehicles (EV) charging infrastructure,” say the regulations.
They also introduce a Class S1 licence for electricians who install generators at homes and business premises and a Class S2 licence for carrying out installation works for lifts and escalators.
Meanwhile, a Class S4 licence will enable an electrician to carry out work for hazardous or potentially explosive areas such as filling stations and fuel depots.
Electricians will pay an application fee of Sh1,000 for each of the licences. They will also pay an annual licence fee of Sh5,000 and a fee of Sh1,000 to replace their licences.
The four categories are classified as special installations.
As a result, an electrician will be required to pay for the permits separately if they want to carry out more than one of the four special electrical installation works.
This will be a blow to electricians who currently need only one licence to do the special electrical installation works.
The current licensing of electrical workers is guided by the Electric Power (Electrical Installation Work) Rules, 2006.
Under these rules, an electrician who does all the four special installations is only required to have the Class A-2 licence.
They currently pay Sh1,000 to apply for the license, another Sh5,000 to be given the licence and Sh2,000 annually to renew the licence.
